If you are a genius who can solve complex problems, does it also follow that you will be wise? I’ve always wondered about this question and whenever I ask people, I get varying answers.
It doesn’t surprise me though because this is a tough question, even though the answer seems like it should be obvious.
Recently I was watching Oppenheimer, and I was struck by what someone said about Oppenheimer in the movie. It’s irrefutable that the man was a genius. Anyone who has an in-depth understanding of physics qualifies as a genius. And most people would expect him to be wise too. And yet this is what was said about him in the movie.
Genius is no guarantee of wisdom. How can this man who saw so much be so blind?
Oppenheimer was a genius and yet he seemed to be blind to some of the things that the people around him, who were not as smart as he was, were seeing.
When I finished watching the movie, I thought about that statement, and it became clear that wisdom and genius are not the same. Heck, they don’t even go hand in hand. Genius and intelligence are related, but wisdom is an entirely different thing.
If genius and wisdom are not the same, how then can we differentiate the two?
Genius is accumulating a lot of knowledge about a particular subject. Wisdom is applying that knowledge to your life.
Seeing a genius do something stupid surprises most people. It shouldn’t. Why? Because genius is no guarantee of wisdom.