“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” A quote from Einstein (As per a social media forward)
I find it hard to believe that someone as gifted as Albert Einstein would have made such a ludicrous statement.
Firstly everybody is not a genius. The word Genius cannot be bandied about so casually. It signifies an exceptional level of intelligence or skill, with proven successes and achievements in multiple fields. Leonardo Da Vinci well known painter and artist, was also an engineer, architect, scientist, inventor, cartographer, anatomist, botanist and writer. He had achieved mastery in all the above fields and can be called a true Genius.
Secondly if anyone is judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree, such a person has clearly and unequivocally, by dint of his actions proved beyond any doubt, his inability to be an adjudicator. Not only is he ill equipped to be a judge, he may possibly be suffering from some mild form of mental illness and is best ignored.
Thirdly if the fish listens to and values the judgment of, such an incompetent judge, it exhibits its impaired sense of awareness and disqualifies itself from any claims of Genius.
People like Leonardo Da Vinci, Newton, Goethe, Galileo, Erasmus etc. were geniuses not because the society considered them so – but in spite of societal discrimination, prejudice, intolerance and fatuous judgments.
That’s it – off my soapbox for now. The social media forwards always get my goat 🙂
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