[PopsiclePete]

I think people are getting hung up too much on the "their own" part vs "full of geniuses" part.

Ok, fine, if three - instead of one - people - out of billions - came up with a revolutionary new idea - that does not, to me, discount the idea of the "lone genius", just because 2 > 1 and we can't strictly use the word "lone" anymore.

The idea would be discounted, if say, 500 million people all invented calculus independently of each other over a period of 5 months.

[ineedasername]

The vast majority of geniuses were lucky enough to be born into families that were very much above the lower socioeconomic classes of their times. These were not "lone" geniuses, not when everything about their early lives gave them advantages above the majority that allowed them to pursue a life that left room for intellectual pursuit.

Whether it's 1 or 10 that made discoveries around the same time, they have still taken advantage of 1) every piece of knowledge they've encountered that came before them and 2) At least limited, and often not very limited, collaboration or "bouncing ideas of off" people around them. 3) The circumstances of their birth. These can't be discounted.

These are, however, matters of degree, and as I said it can still take a unique intellect to put the pieces together. That can't be discounted, but there still must be pieces to put together. Even Ramanujan had tutors from a very early age who taught him quite a bit, along with multiple books on the subject of mathematics, to help him along his way. Each of these sources had in turn built upon many years and many minds' worth of knowledge. Ramanujan is probably the most "lone" of lone geniuses that I can think of, and still he would likely not have achieved nearly as much without that foundational knowledge.

This is not just about simultaneous discovery-- although that does demonstrate the "fertile ground" aspect of things. It is fundamentally about the sum total of knowledge that came before a genius and the social network of very smart, though perhaps not genius intellects, that served as sounding boards, critics, etc.

And though the author of this article wants to discount the "luck" aspect of these individuals, it is extremely notable that most if not all of the individuals that spring to mind came from circumstances of birth that allowed for their intellect to flourish. They were born into circumstances of middle class or higher where resources supplemental to the basic necessities required for life & sustenance could be devoted to their education & leisure time to pursue their interests: Einstein was not born into a working class family with parents confined to jobs of physical labor. Newton's family similarly was not of the labor class. Nor was Ramanujan's. Or Leibniz's.

[rogersbacon17]

Author here - Yes to this.