A simple question about being a genius

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Can you be a genius if your executive functioning is significantly impaired?

I can't see why not

We're all genii in our own ways, and we're all impaired in other ways.

(Look it up - "genii" is an acceptable plural)

Yes.


High IQ doesn't mean 'no dysregulation issues'.

While good executive function is dependent on having higher IQ, having higher IQ is not necessarily dependent on good executive function.

Thus ADHD or any EDF issues is not a contradiction nor mutually exclusive from giftedness or having higher IQ.

And those dysregulation issues are not limited to mental faculties and some are even independent from said mental faculties at all.



Executive function is not as simple as just some trait. It's also a type of skill and practice mixed in.

Then there's the difference between executive function (as in neurological, less conscious function in the background), executive function skills (primary skills learnt through exposure and practice), skills coping skills dealing with executive dysfunction (compensations).


Your average IQ with reliable executive function is way more reliable than someone with high IQ with unreliable executive function.


Then there are few types of people who knows how to exploit said dysregulation.
It's actually not common, contrary to the assumption.

Then there's having good compensation skills, which some of those with high IQ can access.
Most of which requires more than just self reflection.

And then there's the notorious habit of bypassing executive function skills because the usual way is brute forcing their way out, which just exacerbates on not building basic habits early on by leaning too much on said high IQ.

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I know next to nothing about cars , so didn't get this description of me on another forum

There is a possibility. Look at Kim Peek for example. Another great example is Stephen Hawking. There's a great movie that documents this fact quite nicely. Rain Man.

Thank you naturalplastic. That makes sense.

What exactly makes a person a genius? My mother has said that when I was around four years old I drew a picture of the hospital I went to have my tonsils taken out with surprising accuracy for a kid my age. I do vaguely remember drawing something like that on some graph paper my dad gave me.

But I can't play chess. I never invented anything that changed the way people live, like the telephone or computers. I never found a way to cure or prevent a deadly disease. I've been told that I'm intelligent, but some days I'm not even sure I'm average.

The idea of someone 'being' a genius is relatively modern. Originally someone was said to 'have a genius' and that would be specific to a particular ability.

The genius is something external to the person in this context. A spirit or presence if you like that attaches itself to a person and helps them become exceptionally accomplished in a specific area.

I much prefer that concept and it would allow for someone to be impaired in terms of their executive function.

Oh like the alien