Can a prodigy be a genius?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is, "that depends". I shall explain.

Many prodigies are very adept in their area of skill, whether it be passing exams, or playing the piano. Their skill is supreme. Yet, those prodigies known for their skill are, quite frequently, lacking in one respect: creativity. Without creativity, a prodigy cannot be a genius and will never be a genius. However, with creativity, there is a high probability that that prodigy, will grow to be an adult genius.

Many of history's greatest geniuses began life as prodigies. Mozart is the most famed...but there have been many, many others. Picasso showed prodigiousness in Art, so did Leonardo da Vinci. The inventor of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, was an academic prodigy and so on. There are many such examples. Yet, it is also true that many prodigies grow up to be something which is not a genius at all: an expert. So, how can we tell which is which? Which prodigies will become geniuses and which will become experts?

(An expert is someone skilled or knowledgeable in an area, but not needing to show any creativity in that area...they work with what is known, but do not add anything new to it.)

We actually don't need to know that much about prodigies, to have a fair idea which ones are likely to be geniuses and which ones are almost inevitably not going to be one. We can look simply, first, at what they want to be. This provides a big clue as to their natures.

I have seen a prodigy who wants to be an actuary when he grows up. This, to me, is a very strong indicator that the child in question, though skilled, is not creative. No creative person would ever want to be an actuary since there is very little opportunity to contribute creatively or to show creativity in that domain. A creative child, gifted in numbers, as this one is, would, instead, aim to be a research mathematician, or theoretical physicist etc - that would be an indicator of a creative disposition.

I have also seen several prodigies or precocious children who want to be doctors when they grow up. Now, a doctor is a type of expert: one knowledgeable in the ills of the human body. Again, it is not a creative profession - indeed, a creative person might be quite dangerous as a doctor, if they don't follow established procedures etc. So, again, a child who wants to be a doctor when they grow up, is almost certainly not the stuff of genius - they are predisposed to being an expert. A creative child, however, who was interested in biological science (which is related to the work of a doctor), would choose to be a research biologist of some kind. They would not choose to be a medical practitioner, since there is little creativity involved in its pursuit (unless they choose to be a clinical researcher - but, again, this is not the expressed desire of these children).

So, a prodigious child who aims for the professions - as many do - is destined, almost certainly, to be an expert - but not a genius. However, a child prodigy who aims for a creative pursuit - be it research scientist, artist, composer, or writer, is infinitely more likely to have the stuff of genius in them - for they are looking inward and realizing that they have something to contribute/say in these areas. These are the children to whom one should look for careers as adult geniuses, when the time comes.

Of course, for a more accurate assessment, it would be better to have more information about the creativity the children show in their lives - but often that information is not available. What we can usually find out, though, is what they want to be and that, in itself, is a powerful indicator of whether genius is present. Should there also be information concerning actual creative achievements in childhood, then that would be an almost certain indicator of genius to come - for the child would already be showing the mindset of a young genius at work.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
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Service standards in Singapore's hospitals.

Nursing is all about service: service to one's patients. So, too, is the art of medicine (I use "art" deliberately, because medicine is often surprisingly unscientific): it is about doing what can be done for the patient. The focus should ever be the patient and not what the doctor/nurse wants to do for themselves in that particular moment.

Singapore prides itself on its hospitals. I suppose it does so because it is comparing them to those of its relatively impoverished neighbours. I think this a funny comparison to make, since it tells us nothing about how good, in absolute terms, Singapore's hospitals are.

In the past few days, I have been visiting a Singaporean hospital to attend to someone close to me, who is not well. In doing so, I couldn't help but notice certain tendencies in the way the staff...both doctors and nurses...attended to their patients.

I watched, with some amazement, as the nurses were asked repeatedly for a cup, to pour water into, over the space of several hours. The conversations went a bit like this:

"Could we have a cup please?"

"I'll be back."

Three quarters of an hour passed by...and she didn't come back.

So, we asked two others who were probably nurses, since they were dressed in blue.

"Could we have a cup please?"

"We are doing our rounds.", was the unclear answer.

It wasn't clear what that meant, so we sat and waited for the better part of an hour until it became clear what "we are doing our rounds" meant: it meant "We are not going to get it for you, because we just can't be bothered."

They didn't come back.

This kind of conversation and response went on for some time, more, until, finally, I approached a senior nurse and asked for a cup and explained that no-one had got one, despite being repeatedly asked. She looked away, perhaps ashamed and walked off to a room marked "Pantry" to get one. What I was rather stunned to note was that this Pantry was less than 20 metres from the bed where we had been sat. Thus, in all those hours, not one staff member had been bothered to walk 20 metres to get a cup. Had I known it was there, I would have got it myself.

I learnt my lesson, however. When it came time to find some hot water, I didn't ask any of the staff there for assistance: I went to the pantry myself.

This kind of poor service response carried across to ALL requests to the staff, whatever its nature. "Could we have the results of such and such tests?" Ages would pass - and no results would come, unless reminded. "When is the Doctor coming down?" "Soon", would be the answer. An hour or two would pass and still the Doctor would not have come down. "Is there a room in the hospital to do exercise?" "I will get back to you." A day later, she has not.

Another notable tactic of the staff at this hospital is to pass responsibility: "Oh, I will ask such and such..."; "Such and such does that...". It never occurs to any of them that they, themselves, could complete the task requested immediately, without delay, by simply doing it. Instead, however, they prefer to delegate it to someone else - someone who is not around and by the time they are around, they will have forgotten the request.

After a while, one got the distinct impression that the hospital had a special policy of hiring morons only, for its staff positions. It seemed that simply NO-ONE wanted to do something upon being asked - but would always find a reason to delay doing it, that moment, until, of course, they had forgotten the request - deliberately or otherwise.

Singapore's hospitals are great buildings, but they don't have great staff, is my inevitable conclusion. As always, Singapore is strong on hardware and poor on software - or strong on infrastructure and poor on people. At least, that is the way it seems, if one watches how Singapore works.

The poor service I have observed in a Singaporean hospital is completely unnecessary. It just comes from people being LAZY. They are just too lazy to immediately attend to all matters requested - too lazy to do jobs themselves without delegation. It is time for an inviolable rule to be introduced, into all Singaporean hospitals, to improve service standards: any and all staff members should immediately attend to patient requests, without delegation and without delay, if it is within their power to fulfil that particular request. Were this simple rule implemented being sick in Singapore would become a whole lot better an experience.

The odd thing about all this is that Singaporean hospitals are not even free, as many hospitals in many developed countries are. Yet, the free hospitals I have experience of, offered much better service, than Singaporean hospitals do.

Why is an expensive Singaporean hospital offering poorer service than FREE foreign hospitals?

Perhaps the Minister for Health would like to explain this conundrum. Or perhaps readers have their own views on the situation.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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Leonardo Da Vinci on Medicine and Doctors

What did Leonardo Da Vinci think of medicine? Recently, I found out. His words make interesting reading.

In his Notebooks, the following remark is to be found: "Strive to preserve your health, and in this you will better succeed in proportion as you keep clear of the physicians, for their drugs are a kind of alchemy concerning which there are no fewer books than there are medicines."

Now, medicine in his time was a different affair to what it is now. It was only just beginning to turn away from the Ancient writings and start to learn from the world, for itself. Yet, I feel his view is still relevant. His advice that health is to be found far from the reach of Doctors and that the implication that contact with them is harmful, holds more truth, even today, than perhaps we are willing to admit.

Leonardo Da Vinci seems to have kept to his own advice and lived a long life, for his time, dying at the age of 67. Average life expectancy at birth in the 16th century was only 35 years, so Leonardo did rather well.

I just thought you might find this particular wise man's thoughts on medicine, of interest. I did.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)