Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What is talent? Ultimate Philosophy thread?

I wonder if there's still lots of virgin territory. The difference now is that you have to know a lot in order to get there.

I also think that it's easier in hindsight to see how much stuff there was to discover. The great questions of 1900 probably seemed as difficult to the scientists of the day as the questions of 2011 do to scientists now.

I'd say there's a ton of new stuff to find out. Geographically there's space, the final frontier, spiritually there's still suffering and wars and violence to end with respect and dignity, there's still disease, hunger, aging, overpopulation, we're losing species-should we make new ones? We have a lot of questions. We still have needs here on earth. After we address the needs we still have questions. No, our kids do not have to wordy about not having stuff to study and not having anything meaningful they could be doing with their lives. Plus we have complex social/ financial that they can play for a challenge or regulate for a bigger challenge. Study society, study living bodies, study the o-spheres. There's still stuff to do, IMO. You could spend a lifetime just trying to preserve and archive our world's history-someone should. Everybody talks about the leaders and followers, what about the workers. Oh, because the march to the beat of their own drum.

I should really begin practicing better Grammer, my appologies. Just feels so great to feel like I'n having a heart to heart with kindred spirits weither or not we see eye to eye.

I really do think there's just a ton out there to discover. I think it's almost hard not to discover stuff.

About 10 years ago, I picked up a hobby, and started making a splash in an academic field. I'm kinda out of it now, due to the kids thing, but honestly, it didn't take much to "discover" something that other people are now taking seriously. Mostly it took being willing to be ridiculed by the people who taught me the basics, and whom I liked and respected very much. Most of them don't like talking to me anymore, but I get occaisional star treatment from others. It's wierd, frustrating, isolating, and generally not really worth the bragging rights for having done something academically good. (and it's not particle physics, either, historical textiles just don't have the same rep.)

Anyway, I think great discoveries are really about being willing to pay the price for the prize. I kinda forgot to look at the pricetag, or I mighta kept my darned mouth shut.

Since Einstein is the current flavour of genius, the example from his life is that darned patent office, where he hid his real work underneath his assigments... Anyone here remember doing THAT at school? I certainly do. It did not make me feel particularly well valued and respected for my genius, such as it is. (Obviously Einstien did get some real recognition in the end, but my understanding is that that was not all roses either.)

-Mich

Ooh, I didn't mean to imply there is a lack of things to discover (though reading my post I see that's how it reads) - just that because there seems to be a perception that there is less to discover and that this might influence how we feel about the amazing discoveries that are now made. They're just kind of heaped on top of the pile. I absolutely think that what is left to discover is limitless

I have to disagree that there's a huge pile of knowledge that young students/scientists/researches have to wade through first to start discovering things. It's more that knowledge has just been compacted and shifted downwards. During Newton's time Calculus was cutting edge but now it can be "easily" explained to high school students. Over time we learn methods on how to pass down all that complicated knowledge that's been discovered by the top minds to younger and younger students.

I also have to agree with Val that there are other areas that genius can be shown besides just pure research. The tech fields are a great example of this as she pointed out and, really, it's probably infinitely easier to shine in a tech field because you don't need as much education first to make your mark (whereas if you wanted to make a major discovery in a science you'd have a much harder time getting academics to be interested in your work and you'd probably be labeled a crackpot right off the bat if you haven't first gotten a Ph.D).

However, I definitely agree with you on the push for early education and self-discovery. I think even in higher education self-discovery needs to be more emphasized. I would love to see colleges (and some are definitely moving in this direction) really incorporating young students into research projects instead of just having them sit through lectures and take tests. Passive learning just does not stick nearly as well.

It's ok, giftodd. I just said something because nobody said anything here all day so I had to say something. It was either this or dig up the "why bright folks should breed" thread and mention that I had planned to. I wanted to have at least a dozen kids, raise them to think for themselves. Then let them loose on the school teachers and the rest of the world (plot revenge much?). But now I've had two kids and it hurts and takes too long, so, I'm done.

You do make a good point that there's more cool stuff than there used to be for the kids to learn, that everybody else already did before them. Which means the bars higher and it means there's more knowledge to play with, build on.
I watch too much "big bang theory" on tv, so I think there's a disdain between theoretical and applied scientists, so I was just saying, "Gee, why does everybody want to find baby Einstein, ol' Edison waz pretty cool dude too."

A-and, I waz thinking about this while I was painting my kitchen cabinets that we're only calling out people whose talents was solving problems. What does solving problems and creating art have in common?