[rogersbacon17]

Author here - Not upset at all, but I can see why you would think that. The tone was perhaps overly-aggressive, but we are talking about it so that's good I guess. I'm not nearly as confident in the arguments as it may seem.

I guess I'm not nearly confident as you are that a would-be "genius" will just figure it out. From another comment here "This was the most important part of the Malcolm Gladwell book. That chapter, *Trouble With Geniuses Part 2, compares the lack of success by super genius Chris Langan to Robert Oppenheimer who graduated with honors despite attempted murder of a university faculty.

Anybody who has submitted a proposal to a standards body knows this experience. It does not matter how amazing or ingenious the idea is. The most important thing is to achieve buy in from highly skeptical people. The idea can be garbage, but if there is enough charisma and popularity associated people will eagerly polish the idea for you.

The lone genius might build that amazing thing but it takes more to achieve adoption. Originality irrationally scares the shit out of people."

The messaging we send young thinkers may not have a huge effect, but it could be worth something on the margins.