Helen Lewis on the Genius Myth

Metadata

Author: Yascha Mounk
Full Title: Helen Lewis on the Genius Myth
Category: #articles

Highlights

Lewis: Yeah, there’s a line I really love in Pride and Prejudice—sorry, I’m obsessed with Austen today—by Lady Catherine de Bourgh, where she sees Elizabeth Bennet playing the piano. Elizabeth isn’t very good, but she’s trying. And Lady Catherine says, I don’t play the piano, and then adds, had I ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient. And I just think, quite often, I’ll read a comment on the internet and think, Had I ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient. Because it’s this eternal human impulse, isn’t it? I know I could do that better than you. I haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure I could. And I think that’s just a really human impulse—to believe there’s something within you that makes you better than other people who’ve actually tried and been mediocre. And it’s also a fear of failure—you don’t want to try. I think it’s Maslow who writes about this: people don’t just have a fear of failure, they have a fear of success. So in both senses, it’s really awkward. If you try and fail, that’s bad, because now you know you definitely can’t do it, rather than leaving it open. And if you succeed, that’s also scary, because it might make you different from other people, and they might resent you. And again, for geniuses, it’s hard to be the object of everybody’s attention. That level of status and acclaim warps people. If you’re a rock star, for example, you’ve got managers giving you amphetamines, people invested in “brand you,” who want to keep the show on the road.