Finding the Next Einstein

Why smart is relative

by Jonathan Wai

This 8th Grader Wants to Measure Your Cat's IQ

How do you measure the intelligence of a cat? This 8th grader has designed a cat IQ test and needs the help of your cat! Read More

Why Are We so Obsessed With Improving IQ?

Does knowing your IQ really matter? A response to David Hambrick's New York Times opinion piece, "I.Q. Points for Sale, Cheap." Read More

Could We Create Another Einstein?

Is intelligence important to innovation? Who creates the innovator: The parent, the teacher, the mentor, or the innovator themselves? Can passion pay the bills? I tackle these questions and more as I review Tony Wagner's thought provoking book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People That Will Change The World. Read More

Why Are the Children of Immigrants Becoming Immigrants?

Why "the American Dream" is simply becoming "the Dream" Read More

Jonah Lehrer: The Literary Magician

Under the front cover of Jonah Lehrer's instant bestseller Imagine are the letters of the title all mixed up and floating in a cloud, waiting for someone to be creative with them. Read More

Is America "on the Wrong Side of History"?

President Obama has said that "we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow." A recent article in The New York Times suggests that Chinese leaders think America is "on the wrong side of history" and is headed for decline. What are we doing to develop an intellectually competitive team for America's future? Read More

Why Is It Socially Acceptable To Be Bad At Math?

Why is it socially unacceptable to be bad at reading? Read More

Why Don't We Value Spatial Intelligence?

We tend to value people who can write, read, and do math. But what about a mechanical genius who isn't so good at these things? Read More

Your Smartphone Might Be Making You Smarter

Are smart people inventing things that make us feel dumber? Read More

Could Brain Imaging Replace the SAT?

Would the brain scans of Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin look different from Lady Gaga's? Read More

It's the Age of Big Data: That's Why Math Counts!

These are the students who will help invent our future. Let's make sure that we help them. Read More

How Do We Get Kids to Want to Be Einstein?

A conversation with Alex Knapp—writer, futurist, and knowledge evangelist. Here are his thoughts ... On writing: “There are lots of writers with great prose who, in the end, have nothing to say.” On imagination, creativity, and knowledge: “Imagination is a key aspect of creativity, but imagination is useless without a body of knowledge to build from.” Read More

Gaming The College Rankings?

The case of Claremont McKenna College and "the file drawer problem" Read More

How To Spot A Verbal Virtuoso

Are you quietly brilliant? Read More

Intelligence: New Findings And Theoretical Developments

A conversation with Diane F. Halpern, former president of the American Psychological Association, on her role in writing two landmark papers on intelligence, the most exciting findings in recent years, and her thoughts on what research is important for the future. Read More

The Educational World Is Flat

A conversation with Tom Vander Ark, former Executive Director of Education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on his vision for our educational future. Read More

A Polymath Physicist On Richard Feynman's "Low" IQ And Finding Another Einstein

A conversation with Steve Hsu, a modern day polymath, on physics and Richard Feynman's supposedly "low" IQ to intelligence, gifted education, and whether we will find another Einstein. Read More

The Benefits Of Being Gifted

Is being gifted really a curse? Read More

Studying Too Much? This Government Will Stop You

Is Korea cracking down on excellence? Read More

Sorry, Talented: Striving Matters

Do the gifted and talented need to learn humility? Do they need to learn to fail so they can value what it means to succeed? Read More

5 Questions For Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman About "The Creativity Post"

Where can you get quality content on creativity, innovation, and imagination? Read More

Was Steve Jobs on the Same Level as Einstein or Gandhi?

Where does Steve Jobs rank in the pantheon of human accomplishment? Read More

Was Steve Jobs Smart? Heck Yes!

Steve Jobs was not "the 99 percent" intellectually or financially. Read More

Steve Jobs Leveraged His Intelligence to More Effectively Create

How the life of Steve Jobs might inform the age old creativity and intelligence debate. Read More

The Real Slumdog Millionaire

His heroes? His mother and his father. His dreams? To be a software programmer. Read More

How to Control Your Creativity

Can problem solving be considered controlled creativity? Read More

Is This How To Fix Our Math Education?

Shouldn't we emphasize both quantitative literacy and quantitative excellence? Read More

Do Smart People Rule The World?

The role of the “smart fraction” in national competitiveness Read More

How Brainy Is Your Major?

Where does your major rank on smarts? Read More

Wanna Be A Billionaire So Freakin' Bad?

Should you be an entertainer, or an engineer? Read More

Jonathan Wai, Ph.D., is a psychologist, writer, and research scientist at Duke University.

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About Finding the Next Einstein

Finding the Next Einstein: Why Smart is Relative discusses research findings in areas such as intelligence, creativity, psychology and education, touches upon multiple issues surrounding the identification and development of intellectual and creative talent, and explores how these issues might be relevant to what's going on in the world.