Genius vs. Hard Work

[Peachez]

I am definate that hard work will bring you much further in life rather than being a genius. Think of it this way, if a person is a genius, then he or she will know how to do a specific thing but could be lazy to do it. On the other hand, a hard worker will try hir or her best to complete the task and make it its best.

[Taigan]

I also agree with the previous statement. Even if someone was a genius, they wouldn't be able to achieve the best marks without putting any effort into his/her studies. No-one is born full of information, they have to strive to gain that knowledge. For that reason, I'd rather be a hard-working average-brained student rather than a lazy "genius".

[Center Field]

Some people pick up on patterns and numerical values quickly, and those are the people good at math and the sciences. Hard work gets you farther, because laziness gets you nowhere. But everyone is smart about something, or has the ability to become smart at something.

Edited September 10, 2009 by Astrophysics

[Theoreticaly_Physic]

Like my father told me. We are not equal we all have strength and we all have weakness... as most people their strength is working hard.. more than 85% of ib students are there because they work hard as hell. the 15% that dont work hard are geniuses, such as me, but find that when they stumble across something that takes effort they tend to procastinate and end up in extreme laziness. so it is a spectrum . on one side you got the homework A students who do work and end up only c or higher on tests and than the other side there are test acers but they dont do homework and end up barely passing or just passing.... working hard will get you just as far as a genius

[Summer Glau]

I think that geniuses are sometimes a little conceited, thinking that they'll never have to study or work hard. They may be very smart but their pride will catch up with them eventually when they realize that they actually have to sit down and learn something the hard way (by studying). However, students who work hard may not always get the best marks, but they work hard to achieve their goals and have no problem working a little harder to understand something, since they already do it so often. Ultimately, I think hard work will beat out genius in the long run.

[Matthew Sinclair]

There's always those lucky few who seem to get amazing grades without doing ANY apparent study. I used to think they were just intelligent and there wasn't really an explanation, yet, as it turns out, while they may not often study something directly related to the coursework, they often read heaps on a huge range of topics and they are therefore building their knowledge base. It's not like there normally playing computer games or slacking off, they just seem to focus on learning about everything and therefore they seem to get good grades. It would be nice to see them doing some actual coursework revision though haha.

[GNRS]

I'm not a genius, but I'm in this reduced group of people who can get high scores on math exams without reading the book. Actually I can do it with all the science subjects I'm taking (more or less).

And I have to say that IB isn't easier for me than for anyone else, because before IB I never did homework. Before IB, the only things I had to do were going to class and doing exams. Of course, my final grades weren't as good as my exams' grades, because of homework, but they were good enough. Now, in IB, I cannot choose to don't do homework, and I'm working very hard to complete homework because it takes me like twice the time for a normal person.

So, after all, being good at maths and science subjects is not making things easier for me. But it's true that if I weren't good at them, I wouldn't be getting acceptable grades in IB.

[biochem]

LoL my teacher is a genius. She failed her chemistry class for undergrad cause she walked in...said she understood it all and didn't do homework. Failed. she went on to grad school, but that was a bump in the road.

I think you will find that in college, those kids who are exceptionally great have slip-ups. You tend to think that, oh this will work. and then you fall flat on a reading assignment the kid next to you struggled to finish, and finally did with superior quality.

Some things just require time.

I know I cultivate my studies carefully and plan ahead.

Doesnt matter how hard the chem/bio test is - I always do great if I study weeks ahead of those kids night before because they deemed themselves capable of doing great on any task.

[veritas :)]

Our school pushes the "If you're in the IB, it's assumed that you're smart. In order to succeed, you must work hard" train of thought....

I think that 'genius' people have more aptitude for a given subject or whatever, and that is why it appears that they don't have to do as much work..........

[Sparkling]

I do not believe there is an end to how genius/intelligent/skillful one can be, but I do believe that the higher you get from the intelligence potential you were born with the harder improving is going to be.

Also I think that one must truly believe that they have the ability in them to improve, or it won't no matter how hard they try. No genius believes that they're stupid(-er than other people at least) though some people who believe that they're smart just.. aren't. Believing combined with the right kind of hard work (as in studying right, not just much) will get one very, very far. A genius applying the same belief and the same hard work, though, will get further.

Still there are downsides of being genius. I am pretty smart, but that has also made me lazy which makes other people who are a bit slower to over-rank me by far. I would say that being smart combined with my personality created laziness which grossly decreases my potential intelligence so the intelligence I have might have been a bad influence (might as we'll never be able to know what would have happened would I've been a little bit less smart. We'll never know though, I might have been lazy anyway).

In the end I don't believe that one is more important than the other, they are just different ways to achieve the same thing (as in 1 part genius and 3 parts hard work will go as far as 2 parts genius and 2 parts hard work.

[thinkgreen95]

There have actually been studies done on this. They have found several different learning curves which suggest the following:

Up until a certain level, those with a cetain level of pure talent are able to stay at the same level as or easily exceed that of those who simply apply themselves, with no work whatsoever. However, past that level, these naturally talented people must also apply themselves to stay on top or to keep ahead...however, they, for the most part, have to apply themselves to a lesser extent, and ...have a much easier time...in achieving marks or levels of equal or greater merit.

That doesnt seem fair at all but that's just the way it happens to be.

For an anecdotal piece of evidence, I'm a sophomore in Maths HL and I'm easily acing the class while my senior classmates are struggling (I'm not bragging, math just "clicks" for me). Then again, there are those in my class who study for hours and still barely make A's or B's. Sadly, life isnt fair. You have to work with what you have.

[IBDrew]

Honestly, I believe that there is an obvious difference. I choose being a genius of being a hard worker at any given moment. For the simple fact that you can learn how to work hard....... but you cant learn to be a genius.

In the instances of school....where a hard worker could make perfect scores in every class you take if all you did was study, but with a genius.... a genius makes perfect scores + they have plenty of time for CAS, hanging out with friends... playing sports.... all that other good stuff

[Austin Glau]

Hard-working is better anytime. Everyone's a genius at something.

[Caustica]

Geniuses run into all sorts of problems once hard work starts becoming important (i.e. GCSE years). In previous KS3 years, the genius would probably have known everything beforehand (or could make up stuff on the spot and get it right simply because they are geniuses [no, I am not making this up; it's true!]), but there is no amount of genius that can get you full marks in a subject like History or Biology, where revision is the key factor. Of course, the genius still won't need to revise for things like Maths or Physics... but in IB especially, those won't be the only subjects the genius takes.

Also, because the genius has gotten accustomed to not-revising and still getting stellar marks, he/she will have probably developed a lazy personality and an unwillingness to sit down and revise (I'm not a genius, but this is definitely the case with me :/). And it does become a problem. And this is when geniuses start envying the people who do put hard work into school.

The difference between the two, however, is that whilst geniuses can develop a good work ethic, hardworking people cannot become geniuses no matter how they try.

And thus, GENIUS WINS If he/she changes his/her ways when the time is right, of course. Otherwise, unless the genius develops something completely out-of-the-world and gets famous and rich without the need of proper formal education (university degree, basically), he/she will end up failing in life with that amazing, envied brain...

[bLub]

I think intelligent is completely different to hard work. Intelligence is like a talent, like being able to sing or draw for example. Even if you'd work hard, you wouldn't be able to get "intelligent". You'd gain a lot of knowledge, sure, but still, that wouldn't make you intelligent. It's like people who practise drawing a lot and eventually can plot down some sense-making figures, but still, they'd never be able to become a next Picasso coz they're just not talented for that particular task...

[hannah.mb]

Hey!

Some things/questions that come to mind:

1) you can have a really intelligent person who does nothing, does not work hard, and wastes his genius. That is the saddest thing ever, ever. The two go together, trust me.

2)I know a girl who is really, really intelligent and consistently gets 7 in both bio HL and Chem HL, and she studies (i.e. works) HARD. Yet, she always says she hates science with a passion (I know this is really true- she can't find interest in it- she doesn't enjoy it). How do you explain that?

3) You can be really bad at something and still have a great interest for it, like some people who take art and really like it, but don't have "art intelligence" if you see what I mean. But still they work hard for it, because they like it. You can be motivated to work for something even if you're not intelligent in that area.

[__inthemaking]

^^ You don't have to love something to be good at it. To be honest I've HATED math with all that I have since I was little yet I've never gotten below 90% in a maths course, ever. Even now that I'm in university and taking university level calculus, I still ended up with 96% in that course. Yet I despise maths. Maths has been my best/one of my best courses every year that I take it and the only reason I still take it in uni (even though I don't have to, I take it as an elective) is because I know it'll boost my GPA. Some people just take to a subject and have a natural affinity for it even if they don't like it.

I wish I could be the same way with organic chemistry/physics that I am with math .

[Latim]

I'd say being able to work hard and effectively is a sign of genius. I've seen a guys who weren't the brightest, but tactically very smart and they all ended up with the top grades

[~Lc~]

What's more important? This is something that has badgered me for a long time. Especially for the sciences and math, I feel like I am exerting myself much more than many of my classmates and yet some of their results are much better than mine. I know someone who is extremely talented at math. He never makes a deliberate attempt to study but is able to score high because his brain is literally a sponge for math; he assimilates everything in class with ease and is able to apply that knowledge almost effortlessly when it comes to the IB questions where most would have some problems with thinking critically.

To me, a lot of people say that hard work is all it takes. I still believe that hard work will generally lead to success, of course. At the same time, though, do you really think that someone of average intelligence will be able to achieve the same results as someone who is naturally gifted at something if that person of average intelligence truly exerts themself?

Is there a limit to which someone can exert themselves? I mean, the brain is an organ just like any other. There are many people who train hard and long for a sport but will never make it to the Olympics because their physical limit is not at that level. Do you guys think that intelligence work in the same way?

Like you said dude the brain is an organ, you need to know how to treat it well. I thought hard work can beat talent any day, but there's a lot of emotion that comes along with it, mostly in the form of frustration. If you think about how much stress you put your brain through by comparing yourself to others, you're only harming your chances.

Also you need to be eating the right things to help you focus, omega 3 being one of them (found in cod liver oil) and various nuts etc. because these are the nutriants you won't have in your diet.

I also think genius is also partly oppertunities presented. think about it exams weigh what you know in a very subjective way, they don't try and cover things frm every angle, but ask a question from a specific angle (at least social sciencey ones do). If you're lucky like i have been in the exams I actually did well in, you'll get the question you've studied for! if not.. well you're screwed! doesn't mean you don't know what you're on about, just means you were unlucky not to get the question you studied

I don't know which one is better to be honest! but I would categorize myself as the latter (not academically, jus generally in life)

[kingdomx]

I've always believed that everyone was born with the same abilities, thus everyone on this earth has the same capability to succeed in life.

Some people just try harder, and some people just don't put in the effort at all.

I think that this 'effort' factor is affected by your upbringing and your culture, and because we are all diverse, we get the smart people, the average people and the 'dumb' people.