Chapter 7 Hard work, genius (talent), and opportunity

Human talents are different from each other. This is a fact that everyone has seen and cannot but admit, but there is a special kind of talent that most people call "genius".Is there any "genius"?It seems that there is still a bit of controversy and a little difference of opinion. During the "Cultural Revolution", there were a large number of "geniuses", but the "geniuses" approved at that time seem to be different from the "geniuses" I am discussing now.According to my observation and thinking in the past 60 to 70 years, there is no denying the existence of "genius", especially in music and painting.Can you say that Beethoven and Mozart are not musical geniuses?Even if we don't talk about "genius" and only talk about talent, there are great differences between people.Take the teaching of Sanskrit as an example. In the same class, after one year of teaching, the students who are good at learning can teach the poor ones more than enough.Some students just can't jump the dragon gate of Sanskrit in their whole life.I have seen this situation both at home and abroad.

Take it as a study, what is the relationship between genius and diligence?Some people say that "ninety-nine points are hard work, and one point is distracted (belonging to the category of genius)".In my opinion, this percentage should be corrected.Diligence of 70 to 80 percent, genius (talent) of 20 to 30 percent, I think it is more realistic.I don't mean to belittle hard work in the slightest.No matter what line of work you do, you can accomplish nothing without hard work.I just feel that if there is no talent but only hard work, the limit of a person's development is limited.

Now, let me talk about the relationship between genius, diligence and opportunity.I remember that when I was studying Western literature at Tsinghua University more than 60 years ago, I read a poem by the British poet Thomas Gray. The title was probably "Elegy in the Country Cemetery".The content of the poem has been forgotten after more than half a century, and only one sentence is still remembered: "There may be Shakespeare buried in the cemetery." It means that people with Shakespeare's genius will die of old age in a poor country.In other words, he didn't get the "opportunity" and the genius was wasted.What I said above may be misleading; if so, please forgive me.

In short, I think that "opportunity" (or "fate" in the mouth of ordinary people) cannot be denied.A person's whole life of doing things, reading, no matter what he does, there is an element of "opportunity" in it.I am a living example of this myself.If "opportunity" does not favor me, I am still a poor peasant with little literacy, and I may have left the world long ago.I'm not "Wang Banxian" or "Zhang Tiezui", I don't know how to tell a fortune teller or make a face, I don't want to explain this "opportunity" issue, it's beyond my ability.

1997