What does "genius"
mean, to me?
I think there are
many brilliant people
in the world, many people who
are very, very intelligent.
So I think it has to do
with a line of dialogue
that I think we have in
the first episode, which is
"A genius is not just answering
questions but asking questions
that nobody else
thought to ask."
You don't need to raise your
hand to speak here, Albert.
There's a particular thing
that happens to you when
you watch people do
something that they're
really, really good at.
It's a sensation.
It's like a-- it can be a
six-year-old kid drawing
something, or it
can be a painter,
like, applying wall color, but
they're just very, very good.
You kind of know whenever you
witness somebody being really,
really excellent at something.
It's a profound experience to be
able to be around it, you know?
And I think that,
to me, really, is--
watching somebody doing
something special.
Unless we can define time--
Most people would agree that,
whoever the geniuses are--
and you could say it's the
people that can combine ideas
that are staring everyone
else in the face,
but they somehow connect
something that no one's even
thought about.
Like Mozart's metronome.
GEOFFREY RUSH: I found the
quote that Schopenhauer made.
He has this great quote where
he says "Talent hits a target
that no one else can hit.
Genius hits a target that
no one else can see."
Close your eyes.
GEOFFREY RUSH: And then, if
you apply that to someone
like Einstein, he
would engage in what he
called "thought experiments."
He'd just let his mind wander
and drift off and speculate
about [inaudible].
He was always obsessed,
right from his youth--
what if I could travel as
fast as the speed of light?
What would light look
like, next to me?
Now, I'm imagining
that the ball
is traveling in deep space.
The most elegant answer to the
question of "what is a genius"
was given to me by Ron Howard.
Scientists, they live in
the light of knowledge.
They're working, and they're
refining their knowledge,
and they're testing
things, all the time.
Some scientists operate
at the edge of the light,
where the dark is, which--
nobody knows what's in the dark.
But a tiny number of scientists
jump right into the dark
and create their own
light, around them.
It's a combination of vision
and absolute determination
that you're right,
that you're totally
convinced that this leap into
the dark that you've made
is right.
And Einstein
definitely qualifies.
And that--
--to the sun!
--to me, is genius.
I have another question.
