[lioeters]

As well as mentors, we should consider the environment in which genius arose, their cultural context and influences, the zeitgeist, intellectual atmosphere, schools, parents, friends, colleagues, the books they read.

I think we overvalue the uniqueness of the individual in this hero worship of the lonely genius, as if a flower is independent of the earth from which it grows.

But then again, it's true that there are exceptional stars, singular phenomena that cannot be explained by the sum of its parts. I suppose that leap, the surprising distance between what was given and what the individual made of it, is what we call genius, talent, luck or hard work.

[Nevermark]

I think there is a tremendous variety across all of us, in the abstractions we each have learned in order to “understand” our environments.

We can see common evidence of this in how every person we know differs in their general abilities across different problem areas.

But we are so used to that we are probably under aware of how differently we may all think.

Potential geniuses would be people whose internal abstractions are uncommon and happen to fit important under-solved problem areas.

If their uncommon insights are paired with healthy brain biology, a drive to identify and solve interesting problems, and some luck, we get a genius.

[Gooblebrai]

Totally agree. And let's not forget the importance of timing. Those genius will thrive in specific economic contexts and political scenarios