I see sophomaniacs all around me. I suspect it's a phase for millenials and later generations, thanks to the constant "You can do it" propaganda the whole world is pushing for quite some time. Some grow out of it, some don't. I used to think I was very intelligent, being pampered by my peers and strangers alike. My eyes opened when I went to study the epics of humankind. I am not even intelligent, perhaps above average considering the entire species. But that bar is very low, I'm afraid, to even mention in an erudite circle.
Carl Jung has a quote that goes like this — if you know more than others you'll become lonely. I have seen millennials disagreeing with the quote and acting like —'ooh, everyone knows something others don't.' Bitch, please!
There's another narrative that has been pushed by the likes of 'Shandar tel bikreta' malcom gladwell that geniuses aren't all that different and if you were in that situation you could become one too. Again, bitch, please! This is just internalized sophomania. You know precisely who are the extremely intelligent people, you don't even have to try and justify why you're not.
Of course, not every intelligent person will be a sophomaniac. We have seen a lot of cases where unanimously considered great artists do turn out to be arrogant. And we find justification for that. And then in some people, we find imposter syndrome too—for instance, Einstein had it. But we'd all agree he was extremely intelligent, even he himself couldn't not believe that. My take is that sophomania is the opposite of imposter syndrome in many ways.
Before I refute Malcolm Gladwell, I must admit, his definition of genius does not go along with mine. I don't think sportsmen, footballers, engineers who do well are geniuses. Neither are tech CEOs like Elon Musk. Geniuses are the great artists, philosophers, intellectuals, and the like—who shaped the civilization over the years, such as Voltaire, upon whom the 18th-century enlightenment relied a lot. Adam Smith, who we still go back to. Nazrul, whose prose, vehemence blows every other bengali writers out of the water. Malcolms idea that geniuses are the byproduct of right time, right situation, the right mindset, right connection etc are beyond horseshit, and is an insult to them. This provokes several assumptions whether Malcolm admits or not, 1. Geniuses aren't all that different from us. 2. Geniuses are a privileged bunch in right time and right situation, and lastly 3. Anyone can become one with the right support. I belive this is severe superiority complex from Malcolm's part, hence I associated it with sophomania.
Malcolm is wrong because for every example he gives of a privileged genius, we can find some more of them who suffered all their lives, died in miserable conditions, never had any recognition when they were alive, and only gained their rightful fame long after they died. And after that their work shapes the way society thinks or acts. This always doesn't happen during their lifetime. This clearly suggests that geniuses become geniuses by their own merit, and 'THEY' shape their surroundings, not the surroundings shape them.
Also there are numerous elite educational institutions, universities, and colleges that take only the brightest, and they try to shape them into geniuses. If the right situation and privilege were all it took, we'd see waves of geniuses all around us. That really never happened. The idea itself, that to make a genius, "A few certain conditions have to meet" is relied upon so many coincidences that it cannot logically happen in this absurd world where entropy is ever-present. Malcom's Outliers is merely a self-help book as I see it and I call all of them Shandar tel.
P. S. You know what shandar tel is?
It is some sort of obnoxious non-existent 'oil' from questionable sources you cannot possibly make oil out of—that is sold by roadside merchants, who are equally questionable, to enlarge small penises. 1. Penises never enlarge. 2. Shandar tel sellers target the insecurity a man with a small penis might have. Quite similar to the self-help books.
Wow, you went all out with this one. Even Malcom Gladwell gets the axe 😅. I mean, outlier was a pile of shit in itself.
Shander tel?
Self help books?
C'mon 😅
I am a very opinionated person Steven,but you knew that already! 😁
I've tried many a different self help books, I always found that what they wanted to say could be contained in just a chapter and not a whole book. Some do give you cool advice, and they go on repeating the same thing over and ever.
Also many books reiterate the same points other authors did in different words.
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