One Day University | The Nature of Genius: From Leonardo da Vinci and Mozart to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs

About 1 in 400 people have an IQ considered genius (140 to 145) and anything above 165 is considered high genius. After a score of 200, genius is said to be immeasurable. Galileo would have hit about 185, with Descartes coming in close behind at an IQ of 180. Mozart had an IQ around 165 and Rembrandt 155. How do we account for the genius of Jefferson, Einstein, Newton, Leonardo, Joyce, Picasso, and others? What is genius? How do we define it? Can we all become geniuses if we just practice diligently for 10,000 hours over a 10 year period, as some recent books suggest? This never-before-offered class taught by Yale Professor Craig Wright will test our definition by evaluating luminaries past and present.

Craig Wright / Yale University
Professor Craig Wright is the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Music at Yale. Professor Wright’s courses include his perennially popular introductory course “Listening to Music,” his selective seminar “Exploring the Nature of Genius” and other specialized courses ranging from ancient Greek music theory to the music of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Bach and Mozart. He was awarded the International Musicological Society’s Edward J. Dent Medal and the American Musicological Society’s Alfred Einstein Prize and Otto Kinkeldey Award – making him one of the few individuals to hold all three honors.