Imagining the outcome of being smarter is different than imagining being smarter, right?
Not really. It's because we all have an idea of what getting smarter feels like. If one went to school, learning new things is equivalent to getting smarter. Because of that, imagining being smarter is not that difficult. We have a vague understanding of our limits. Being smarter typically breaks through that.
but like you said, genius level is out of reach. "unimaginable" .
I would also like to correct you that I never said that. I said it would be difficult. I do think that if one pursues and works on something hard enough, they would be able to reach the level that people consider genius.