“The Versatility of Genius”, 1931 (; similar):
The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to estimate the versatility of 300 eminent men, as an indication of the extent to which specialization is favorable or unfavorable to the attainment of eminence; and (b) to discover what kinds of special ability are associated with certain kinds of genius, as an indication of the vocational types to be kept in mind in the education and guidance of gifted children.
…The first purpose of this study was “to estimate the versatility of three hundred eminent men, as an indication of the extent to which specialization is favorable or unfavorable to the attainment of eminence.” If bare figures told the whole story, the answer would be decisive. We could say, not only that these geniuses were not one-sided freaks, overdeveloped on one side of their natures and atrophied on all the rest, but that they were actually far more versatile than the average college graduate of today. They were judged superior to the average graduate in 2015 instances, and inferior in only 141. Even if 30% of the positive scores were disregarded because they represent abilities which contributed to eminence, and 40% more were disregarded because they represent activities which took up only a very small amount of time (these percentages are very unreliable), there would still remain 605 positive scores in contrast to the total of 141 negative scores. Positive scores would still be more than 80% of the total (746), and negative scores less than 20%.
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