Shakespeare is the only genius that appears to me superhuman in depth of knowledge of history religion culture combined with wit a stupendous flair for language/poetry and an unparalleled ability to understand and express the human condition. I simply don’t know how he was possible
Trouble is that any women geniuses would have gone unnoticed because society would not have enabled them to express that genius. I am sure a list made 1000 years from now would look more equal.
I'm genuinely of the view that, had women been more easily afforded the opportunity to attain positions of power and influence for the last two millennia, society would be better for it.
certainly a genius at getting investors, the initial lots of whom didn’t make money, to bankroll a long term loss making business to the point where it crushes the competition. Amazon is a well designed business structurally but it’s commercial success was just brute force.
I don’t tend to be in awe of business people but Bill Gates is probably the most heroic figure of the postwar business world. In the west anyway.
Marvin Bower, the bloke who made McKinsey, also a bit of a legend.
"I'm genuinely of the view that, had women been more easily afforded the opportunity to attain positions of power and influence for the last two millennia, society would be better for it."
I love how this was stated as if it is some kind of profound or controversial opinion.
Really? So, what youre saying is that if, over the last 2000 years, women had had more influence society would be better?
Put down the placards ladies. I guess feminism has finally won!
Diceman - genius is normally evidenced by the beautiful simplicity of the insight or idea, rather than how complex or convoluted it is. Natural selection is a good example.
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1. Anonymous
2. Hong Kong Fuey
3. Leisure Suit Larry
4. a perfectly normal human being
5. Sir Woke XR Remainer FBPE MBE
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Beethoven
Shakespeare
Plato
Napoleon
Dylan
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Einstein
Newton
Plato
Lizz Truss
Devi Sridhar
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What about musical?
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Milligan, Cleese, Everett
...Sessions
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1. Wiley
2. Dizee Rascal
3. Skepta
4.Lethal Bizzle
5. Furio "Money" Grosso
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Obviously
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Me
No others need apply.
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1. Mozart
2. Shakespeare
3. Pindar
4. Leonidas
5. Lady Thatcher
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1. Mozart
2. Newton
3. Messi
4. Shakespeare
5. Galileo
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ooh Jacqueline du Pre as a joint 5th with Lady T.
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Bach
Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
El Greco
Bradman
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Shakespeare is the only genius that appears to me superhuman in depth of knowledge of history religion culture combined with wit a stupendous flair for language/poetry and an unparalleled ability to understand and express the human condition. I simply don’t know how he was possible
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Hitchens has got to be top 5
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Aristotle
Wagner
Goethe
Chaucer
Newton
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Lollers at Thatcher
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1. Taylor Swift
2. Newton
3. Euclyd
4. Turing
5. Einstein
Feynmann in there somethere too, I guess.
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Laz
Devi
Whitty
Nish kumar
Trump
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You'd have Sagan in there ahead of Feynman surely if you're going for modern
Guy, Newton was a more astounding polymath than Billy S
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I'd say Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy.
Einstein, Leibniz, Newton. Not sure who gets it for quantum mechanics.
Keynes, Russell, Chomsky.
Assorted mathmos.
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Ada Lovelace
Newton
Dickens
Jonny Wilkinson
Mozart
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Noam Chomsky is one of the top 5 geniuses of all time? Really?
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Of those living he might be No 1.
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Who doesn't respect a lava lamp?
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Fûcking FIFTH? Are you shitting me?
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A list, is a list jelly.
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No Gauss? I think he has to be in there ...
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I had to degauss my list just in case.
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1. Newton
2. Mozart
3. Aristotle
4. Shakespeare
5. Darwin
Honourable mentions
Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Voltaire, Bertrand Russell, Einstein.
After careful deliberation and consideration, it was not possible to accommodate any of the OP’s nominations in the top 5 billion candidates.
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kaulbach m7, aristotle was soooooo derivative
plus cannot believe u haven’t found space for paul lambert
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Chomsky LOL
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Da Vinci
Einstein
Newton
Goethe
Bernard Cornwell
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Kant, Bach, Einstein, Da Vinci, Turing
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Maybe Tesla instead of Turing.
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How does HG recommend Leibnitz when all he ever did was say "what if I covered the top of this biscuit in chocolate"?
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Lol @ the three women mentioned being gag nominations
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Richard Sharpe
Horatio Hornblower
Stephen Maturin
Richard Bolitho
Thomas Kydd
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This is a sausage fest tbf
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Trouble is that any women geniuses would have gone unnoticed because society would not have enabled them to express that genius. I am sure a list made 1000 years from now would look more equal.
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1. Newton
2. Archimedes
3. Da Vinci
4. Shakespeare
5. Tesla
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Some weird shouts here.
In no particular order:
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Heh @ Paul Lambert.
His strengths lie elsewhere…
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1. Hypatia.
2. Marie Curie.
3. Clara Schumann.
4. Jane Austen.
5. Hedy Lamaar.
(6. Some men.)
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I'm genuinely of the view that, had women been more easily afforded the opportunity to attain positions of power and influence for the last two millennia, society would be better for it.
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The Hindu who invented the zero
Alexander Fleming
Marie Curie
Jobs
Steve Bruce
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1. Aristotle
2. Leonardo Da Vinci
3. Carl Friedrich Gauss
4. William Shakespeare
5. Karl Marx
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Zero first came from mesopotamia.
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Tragi-heh @ Thatcher
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Not committing to this as an order but a working too five would be:
- Lenin (the all time political genius IMO)
- Messi
- Da Vinci
- Newton
- Me
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Feels like there should be someone from the ancient world in there.
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I might dump Newton for Turing actually.
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For business genius it's hard to deny Jeff Bezos his place.
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certainly a genius at getting investors, the initial lots of whom didn’t make money, to bankroll a long term loss making business to the point where it crushes the competition. Amazon is a well designed business structurally but it’s commercial success was just brute force.
I don’t tend to be in awe of business people but Bill Gates is probably the most heroic figure of the postwar business world. In the west anyway.
Marvin Bower, the bloke who made McKinsey, also a bit of a legend.
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Not sure what Thandie Newton has done that was so great
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"I'm genuinely of the view that, had women been more easily afforded the opportunity to attain positions of power and influence for the last two millennia, society would be better for it."
I love how this was stated as if it is some kind of profound or controversial opinion.
Really? So, what youre saying is that if, over the last 2000 years, women had had more influence society would be better?
Put down the placards ladies. I guess feminism has finally won!
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And who said feminists had no sense of humour?
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Da Vinci
Shakespeare
Newton
Goethe
Einstein
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Mary Wollstonecraft
Marie Curie
Emmeline Pankhurst
Rosalind Franklin
Christa Wolf
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Christa Wolf are you having a laugh?
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How’s Pankhurst a genius? She was a skilled campaigner but hardly in the same intellectual league as Marie Curie!
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kaulbach, what's your justification for darwin. obs we know the basics
Shakespeare and Bach are on my list. Thatcher is under consideration....
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No, Wolf is a massively important writer.
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Impossible in any event to rank geniuses. A silly exercise.
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Someone’s listed Messi above. He’s probably not as clever as Richard Feynman or Crick and Watson.
Why do you assume, Crypto, that genius is only about right brain science skills?
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Read much Wolf, WL?
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I’ll trade you Hannah Arendt for Wolf, if you prefer.
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If we are going for a female top 5, maybe:
Hildegard Von Bingen
Wu Zetian
Marie Curie
Emily Dickinson
Dorothy Hodgkin
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Hmm, I thought Hypatia was a good shout, ticking both the "female" and "ancient" boxes.
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And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I, my Robert Frost
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Rachel Carson not a bad shout either
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Yes and as with nearly all of these people none of them are geniuses.
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i would argue hypatia is post-classical rather than ancient world
for ancient, sappho has to be in with a shot - way ahead of her time
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Nearly all or none?
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Diceman - genius is normally evidenced by the beautiful simplicity of the insight or idea, rather than how complex or convoluted it is. Natural selection is a good example.
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1. Bill Hicks.
/fin.
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“Impossible in any event to rank geniuses. A silly exercise.”
Pointless non-contribution of the week.
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A genius has more than one idea in a lifetime.
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Philip Larkin
Dennis Bergkamp
Hazel Hill
Joseph Swan
Antony Gormley (Angel of the North cost £800,000 all in)
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Sir Woke XR Remainer FBPE MBE16 Sep 21 09:24
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“Impossible in any event to rank geniuses. A silly exercise.”
Pointless non-contribution of the week.
Why thank you, sir. Coming from you that means a lot.
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Although I feel I should point out that, strictly speaking, it was a contribution in the week before last.
Depending on one’s view, it was perhaps the only contribution that matters, objectively speaking.
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