Interesting, but ultimately overly self-centered essay lacking real substance and evidence.<p>1. Gripe: Why do authors seek to write auto-biographical introductions? I count 5 full paragraphs of intro into this self-admitted "plodding" professor, who is not a genius, nor is he describing the "nature" of genius in those paragraphs. It comes off unnecessary and self-centered to write 5 paragraphs about yourself at the start of an essay on the nature of genius, does it not?<p>2. Mozart is held up as his first great example of Genius. Mozart had numerous advantages when young, though: he grew up in an intensely musical family, his brain was adapting to music in his first 3 years and then he was professionally trained beginning as a toddler. If you'd been playing piano for 3 years and your brain was specially adapted to it, yes you could be a wonder of Europe if you were also still only 5-6 at the time. The exponentially faster learning that young children exhibit is well known: their brains are extremely neuro-plastic.<p>3. Further down the essay, once more, a few autobiographical paragraphs about his class and Yale, and waxing poetic on gender discrepancies, not about geniuses. The essay seems to lack focus on the stated topic, the Nature of Genius, not the Nature of Yale or of the writers' life.<p>4. After more waxing poetic and little hard evidence except for cursory mentions of the famous geniuses, I find myself waiting for the simple point: <i>genius is a social construct</i>. We are all cooperatively working together, and geniuses are those who are labeled geniuses based upon the impact of their output. To explore the "nature" of genius is therefore a confluence of exploring psychology, human networks, history, and epistemology, and how socially geniuses excel inside the network of thought.<p>5. IMO, modern schooling is quite time-consuming and limiting. I find myself wondering, didn't the apprentice system where children had time to work on topics for a full decade longer, while younger, doesn't that aid in the creation of greatness? Rather than our painters painting from age 12, they don't begin working in earnest until age 22, up until which time their "work" consists of theoretical assignments, problem sets, and doesn't touch the real world applications which greatness necessitates.