High IQ Is Necessary For An Einstein, But Not Sufficient

Few picked the young Einstein for greatness. One of his professors opined that he would “never amount to anything” because of his tendency to question authority. When he graduated from university, no one wanted to take him on as a graduate student because he was something of a rebel, rather than a team player. He got a job as a patent clerk, 3rd class.

The things that made Einstein a great scientist were his willingness to question everything that was inadequately tested, his devotion to honesty in scientific matters, and his persistence when others told him he was on the wrong path and wasting his time. The great Max Planck told Einstein, when he first heard of AE’s plans to supersede Newtonian gravitation/physics with General Relativity, that: “you are almost certainly wrong, and even if you are right, no one will believe you.” Not even Planck could deflect Einstein from commitment to his new vision for physics.

Then there was his key attribute of a highly refined intuition for how nature really works. He had the ability to reliably sense the key anomalies, patterns and analogies that hinted at the path forward.

Einstein is reported to have said that “the intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.” Clearly, any future Einstein will need both. But identifying persons with such intuitive power in their younger years is a very difficult task. Fortunately, they will tend to emerge from the herd with time, as Einstein did, because they have talent, drive, integrity and the sacred gift of intuition.