I think there was a disconnect. In the context of my reply I was assuming that your opinion is what society generally holds true. I, too, believe this. It's tal

I think there was a disconnect. In the context of my reply I was assuming that your opinion is what society generally holds true. I, too, believe this. It's talked about in books like the Growth Mindset and that book resonates with me a lot. I was merely trying to say that these two ideas (1) you don't have to be genetically gifted to achieve greatness and (2) some people are just genetically gifted and they may very well reach ideas that most others won't - even in solitude - are not incongruent ideas. The vast majority of people are not given great genetic aptitudes for things so reminding society that normal people can come together and create wonderful things is truly helpful. However, we should also recognize that some people, like von Neumann, Gauss, Newton, etc, are just on another level - and we as a society should also foster the potential of these people. We can have both, we need both (since most people aren't like those three names above), and there's no reason we shouldn't try to embrace both ideas.