Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.            ---Albert Einstein.

Can we all agree that Albert Einstein, the author of the incredibly complex and paradigm-shifting General Theory of Relativity, was a genius?  And that a lot of the folks we see around us (not our own selves, naturally) seem pretty stupid? Well, that usage of "genius" and "stupidity" isn't what the groundbreaking physicist had in mind, in my opinion.  Rather I think he was making a profound point: each of us has our "genius" moments and our "stupid" stretches, whether we're deemed to be smart or not.  That's certainly true for me as I look back on my life.  My "Eureka!" experiences pale in significance and scale compared to all of the dunderhead blunders I've committed...yet there's something almost divine or supernatural during those rare instances when everything seems to come together into focus and a new, foundational idea or principle occurs to me.  I've noticed this probably the most in the past during my usually frustrating experiences in school, especially during different math classes in which the teacher would stand at the front of the students presenting the material and suddenly, out of the blue, I would "get it".  Like Einstein, I was generally a mediocre-to-average math student (although I consistently scored high in it on the various standardized tests we students were subjected to) ...and I'm not too happy with the quality level of teaching I was dealt in school regarding this field.  But I digress...

Sometimes a genius moment doesn't involve understanding or creating a complex idea...it can be the opposite when I figure out how to simplify things to a level that makes my life more manageable.  Being a person of routine, I am looking for ways to integrate the various things I want to accomplish within the framework of a day or week...not abstract physics, but still something that involves the management of chaos, to a degree.  And that's where I think most of the genius of humanity is expressed: not in great works of art, music, literature, engineering, or science, but rather in the multitude of adjustments, discoveries, and innovations people make in their daily lives, ingenious little things that generally go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Yet I sadly acknowledge that, in the midst of all this good stuff, the stupidity I see in that world seems limitless...