12 Celebrity Secret Geeks – Celeb Zen - Page 3
Bryan Bedder / Getty Images Entertainment
3. Art Garfunkel
World-famous and multiple-award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, actor, poet, and everything else you can think of, is also a bit of a maths geek, which you probably wouldn’t have guessed. He has a master’s in maths from Columbia and comes from a long line of geeks.
Not only that, but he is also an avid reader, a true bibliophile we dare say! Although, he admits he wasn’t born in a household with a huge family library, but developed a love for books later on. It was at Columbia College in 1959 where he decided to “read a million books and became a reader” and also started writing poetry.
He initially majored in architecture, but got a B.A. in art history, an M.A. in math, and completed PhD courses in mathematics at Teachers College, also at Columbia, during the most successful times in his band’s carrier. His talent as a poet started to evolve on tour, in 1981, while he was riding a motorcycle in the countryside.
Not only did he write beautiful lyrics for the folk band, Simon and Garfunkel, he published a collection of prose poetry Still Water, which got decent critical acclaim. His reading capacity included a thousand books, and his website is there to make sure we don’t miss out on his reads.
Even though it might be a smug move, it may inspire some to read a few books every once in a while. His list of already read books contains 1000 titles. That’s a lot of effort spent, and you have to give him credit.
The famous folk artist also likes taking walks. A lot. One time, he walked across Japan in a matter of weeks, and from 1983 to 1997, Garfunkel walked across America, taking 40 excursions to complete the route from New York City to the Pacific coast of Washington.
After that, he went for Europe. Why? To get inspiration for writing poetry. He got six Grammy Awards for his music, and appeared in ten movies, and was nominated for the Golden Globe in 1972, for Carnal Knowledge.
Total rubbish. Gates was a highly skilled programmer who co-wrote DOS among other things.
snoglydox
Tim Paterson is the original author for MS-DOS, (or QDOS for Quick and Dirty Operating System,) among other things.
Marvin Meeker
Only touched the tip of the iceberg with Brian May. The Red Special, his main guitar throughout his career, was built by him and his dad when he was a teen. Think that was easy? The entire band worked on A NIGHT AT THE OPERA for nine months and it is very complex. May completed his doctorate, which he dropped when his musical career took off, in 2005. You might say he is a real rocket scientist.
C-spot
Most of these people dropped out of college to pursue modeling and acting, how does that make them abnormally intelligent? A biology degree for Lisa Kudrow, ooohh how tough. Tom Hanks has an honorary position on a science board, hardly important. Rosario Dawson has a comic book, so what, so do tons of other celebs.
Pete
Brian May has a PhD in astrophysics. Not just a Bachelors
Screanam
Wow. Art Garfunkle looks just like ex-mayor, Ed Koch.
Bubbles
1 in every 5 college graduates will have a job available for them. That’s the stat that makes those degrees into hovering burdens of debt. I agree with blakmira, because I’m way more intelligent than damn near every single person I’ve ever met. I think intelligence comes from an individuals mental faculty, rather than exposure and instruction. Comprehension and retention have little need of certificates of completion.
Fermata
Uh, fools, Brian May has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics.
John
blakmira,he actually has a Ph.d in Astrophysics. I am surprised this wasn’t mentioned above.
Ishkabibble
The criteria you use for Rosario Dawson’s so-called intelligence is absurd.
Check out the court side pics of she and her girlfriend hammered out of their minds at a Knicks game a few months ago. Not looking too intelligent there.
And yeah, what about M.I.T. graduate James Woods?
Let me guess; no known Conservatives are welcome on this list.
Diavolino
James Woods has an IQ of 180…WTF is he on the list?
Hizzy
Sure, you can see a degree as a huge bill that costs a bomb or you can realise that a normal person can excel to great accomplishments… and statistically, those who have graduated earn 3 times more than someone without a degree
… so yeah- a degree is pretty nifty
Dan Crabtree
Sadly as proven time and time again all the intelligence in the world cannot buy comman sense…and it is impossible to retain both of these senses at the same time…..so yes i stay with what i was born with….comman…
DuchessLazy
LOL, so from the way Natalie Portman dresses most of the time I wouldn’t say she was intelligent –
Franken
You’re forgetting Dolph Lundgren. He holds a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from University in Sydney, and he fluent in Swedish, English and Spanish
James Brazil
wow you mean to tell me that the woman that makes an online series about WoW, is a geek! wow didn’t see that coming
lakawak
Simply getting a college diploma does not mean one is smart.
bearjolly
You forgot Jodi Foster.
Lady Light
Michael Muhney, who was recently let go from his part as Adam on The Young and The Restless is a member of MENSA, a group one can not join unless they have an IQ of at least 131 or above….But being so smart didn’t keep him from allegedly fondling a fellow co-worker there on the set….the girl that plays Summer. Perhaps it’s because people like this are so smart that they have no inhibitions or boundaries that they won’t cross.
POV4
Intelligence isn’t synonymous with common sense or self control.
Dr Feel Good
College grads make 60% more than High School Grads .across the board.
dwmf
Art Garfunkel I am not surprised about. He has a brother who is one of the designers of the COBOL programming language.
Joe
Tom Hanks voted for Obama twice. In my book that makes him stupid
Meredith DePercy Moreland
I also didn’t see that they said he went to college, only that he wanted to be an astronaut. So, by that reasoning… If I WANT to be a Brain Surgeon, does that make me smarter than the average person that just wants to be Tom Hanks?
Queefer Sutherland
Danica can do my math any time!
Oatring
Brian May holds a Ph.D in Astrophysics and was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool University. He even has an asteroid named after him.
Jon Holden
HEY PAUL!
Steve-O
Cindy Crawford studying chemical engineering on a full ride actually makes Denise Richards Bond character, Nuclear Physicist Christmas Jones, seem fairly believable
QueenRules
Um, Brian May did more than publish a paper. He got a Ph.D in astrophysics in 2007.
Geena Davis, IQ 140. Member of Mensa.
NoGuff
RE: Lisa Kudrow, a “masseur” is a man.
Rock Anejel
They forgot Ben Stein and Gina Davis who are both members of MENSA.
Rock Anejel
Huey Lewis is no geek. And no genius either. He bought his girlfriend a house in Santa Cruz, CA only a few doors down from his home with his WIFE and CHILDREN! When his wife told him she was divorcing him he said, “Why, I was just trying to be a nice guy!” He really didn’t get it! Not only that, he NEVER practices with his band. He pays another guy to do it and then Huey just shows up for the gigs. LOSER!
Jon Weiss
For those wrapped around the idea of College as a guarantee of success or sign of intellect, it is neither. I do not rate myself anything but “average” in intelligence, and those with whom I have worked over the years may even question my rating of “average” as being too high since I have made a fair number of mistakes in my life, but that aside, I do have three college degrees, none at the graduate level but three degrees nonetheless. My degrees do not make me “smarter”, only a bit more informed in the areas I studied.
As for Mayim Bialik’s accomplishments, her having a degree in neuroscience may or may not be impressive to some, but the unique factor is that she is an actress who, unlike many of her cohorts, actually has an education in the very subject at which her character excels. The same can be said of few in Hollywood, but one other comes to mind, Pauley Perrette who plays “Abby” on NCIS is who plays a “criminal forensics specialist” has an educational background in Psychology, Sociology, and Criminal Investigation. So the educational background fits the part for her as well, that is unique.
snoglydox
Steve Wozniac graduated from University of California, Berkeley!!!!!!!
glenp827
HANKS? more akin to FORREST GUMP
Jones
You might want to fact check. Terence Howard does not have a degree, in either of those fields. He has honorary degrees only and certainly not in engineering
D Snow
Ha. Terrance Howard is so smart he decided Iron Man 2 wasn’t worth his time… and thus lost out on roles in Iron Man 2 and 3 and a possible part in the Avengers trilogy.
Cauthon
I’m not surprised to see a musician on the list. Listen to Eric Clapton playing the guitar and it is clear that he has a lot of grey matter connected to his 10 fingers. Or Phil Collins singing (right, singing stuff that most of us couldn’t do at all) and playing the drums at the same time. Even among the much-maligned sports figures, a quarterback has to keep track of where 22 men are and throw the ball far down the field to where his receiver will be when it gets there – sort of like Nasa aiming at where Mars will be a year or two later.
Cauthon
Gates may not be the absolute #1 but he is right up there. I read in the news a few years ago that he can recite line after line of computer code that he wrote 20 years ago, although he may not remember your name next time you meet him. I don’t care if remembers my long, complicated name as long as he and his people can make the computers run.
Victor Zellner
I believe Woz was a college dropout too.
ColinC
He apparently went back later and completed his degree. Here is how he is listed in the Cal alumni database:
Stephen Wozniak
Electrical Eng & Comp Sci, BS, 1986
Barb Carey
Yes that surprises me about Terence Howard. and he’s HOT too !!!
baababuy
blakmira atre you dropout too ( I assume no garbage can)
Jono
Ugh… *Sees Big Bang Theory and clicks off*
sfinsf
always amazes me how many people seem to think that acting requires a person to be physically attractive, but doesn’t require any brains. Really? Have you ever heard Meryl Streep or Kevin Spacey or Emma Thompson or Judy Dench or Kate Blanchett interviewed? These are just a few examples. Go on “YouTube” and watch some of the interviews done over the years for the show “Inside the Actors Studio” and tell me how stupid most of them seem to you. NOT! AND many of our greatest actors are not the handsomest or most beautiful model types — they are great ARTISTS. Great acting is HARD WORK — and there is a sort of magic process of channeling a character that great actors manage. Draining. And when they’re not working (at least until they obtain super star status) they worry scared as hell that they will not work again. Very difficult life.
sfinsf
Having a doctorate is “geeky”? wow. Your article makes it pretty clear that the audience this website and your article is targeting is probably not very accomplished or intelligent. As someone who holds an M.Litt in history from one of Europe’s leading universities, I guess I’d better get off this site!
LorinThePhotographer
Haha, me too. In my defense, I accidentally stumbled across this reading another article on another site. When I read the comments here, I couldnt resist replying. But, yeah this “celebrity” bs sites and all their undying worship to these aHoles is sad and pathetic. Usually, I try never to click or read anything celebrity based cause it perpetuates the whole sad ass culture of it all.
Steve
Neuroscience,not Literature lol
LorinThePhotographer
I think it is pathetic that equating manifestations of intelligence and degrees with being a “geek.” Clearly, by and large there is something wrong with our culture.
Kim KarTRASHians and her horrible family are by and large what are celebrated by the sheep in society. Sure why go to college when you can make a sex tape and exploit yourself and family to no end. And also, teach young girls this is a very viable path for them to take as well.
For those of you who put down higher education, you are dead wrong. Higher education furthers your critical thinking skills, broadens your knowledge base…
It is not just some “piece of paper.” People with no college education, love to put down those who have one with these reasons.
I do really well as an advertising photographer and a lot of my job is not just taking pictures. There is a huge business aspect of negotiating, contracts and so on.
I work with only college educated art directors and creative directors- also high paying jobs. If they did not pursue their education, there is NO way they would have the skill set to hold their current position, nor would they be considered for their job, in the first place.
So a college education, isn’t just for science and math based jobs but for “artistic” jobs as well.
That being said, even successful makeup artist and hair stylists have furthered their education in trade schools.
You are a fool if you think higher education is a waste of money.
sfinsf
HELLO, SISTAH! I call them KarTRASHians all the time — but have never seen it anywhere else! Glad to see someone else write it. And by the way – I also agree completey with what you wrote. I am 56 and was told in college that an English degree was a waste of time. I went to a top European university at age 36 and took my master’s degree in medieval history. I worked all my life — before an after grad school — as an advertising, marketing, and corporate communications writer for leading international corporations — and my thesis was published as an academic book that sold out. Did my graduate degree make me money? No. Did I expect it to? No. Did it cost me money? Yes. Did what I learned change the world for me, enhance it greatly, connect dots, make the civilization that I live in make more sense to me, be richer and more meaningful? Yes. Did I advance the learning of the world with my own research ?Judging from the scholars who have quoted me and the academic books and articles it’s been cited in, yes. Do I own my own home in a very expensive city — which I have done working all my life as a WRITER? Yes. Pity the poor fools who waste their lives chasing after money…instead of knowledge. The latter creates the former…and even if it doesn’t make your wealthy, it makes you RICH in so many other ways.
LorinThePhotographer
Beautifully put. Sounds like you have already had such an amazing life.
Pathetic to see how no one here gets the overall value of higher education. The overall demographic here must be a joke.
PublicRelations
you sound so bitter, at the fact that the KarTRASHian are successful, not only because of the sextape,she did not sign a deal to make money off of her sex tape it was leaked. she is famous because of her step dad. and you go as far as to say her horrible family you know only what the media shows you, i think your mad at the fact you are not Attractive enough to make a living off of your looks, which is “Art” which you probably take pictures.
oh and good job on your degree
LorinThePhotographer
Lol, what hole of sand is your head stuck in? She is absolutely famous because of her sex tape and she admits it. They built an empire on exploiting themselves and thereby bringing down all women collectively. I am not spoon fed what the media tells me and have based my opinion on this horrible family by their own comments and actions soley. Who says, I am mad, but you sound mad- lol and misguided and clueless. Nice job taking a shot at my appearance- A personal attack- bravo- again laughable and pathetic- lol. Photographers make A LOT more than models with much more longevity. And also for the record- I am 5’10, 135lbs and have been approaced by 2 modeling agencies- LMAO
Steve
I don’t know anyone who puts down higher education…you can’t take seriously the lowest common denominator on the Net.
However the fact that you do may say more about you, then them.
LorinThePhotographer
The fact that I do what?
JoeBob
Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the action hero stereotype, alongside Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
He has also received a degree in chemistry from Washington State University in 1976, a degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in the early 1980s, then a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney in Sydney in 1982.
Bill in NJ
Well, if you REALLY wanted to know who the smart ones are, ask them: Who did you vote for in the last election?
photonblaster
Now your just being mean.
Nicole Sealey
Terence Howard has an HONORARY Doctor of a Humane Letters, not Physics. Celebs SHOULD NOT make claims that honorary degrees are the same as those of us who spent 4-10 years earning one.
Big B
The Terrance Howard clams are completely false.
sigp238
Hey idiots, the title of the article is 7 celebrity geeks, obviously they had to leave someone off the list. Screw Geena Davis leftist hag.
Ehkzu
Thanks for reminding everyone how classy the Far Right is. Not.
Alphonso de Barbo
Becoming an ‘actor’ is not the most challenging intellectual path one could make in life. Perhaps it means they were all abnormally intelligent for the special needs class they attended at school
Oy Maggie
I object to how the word ‘geek’ has a negative stigma attached.
Ian
Still waiting for a copy of her dissertation 🙂
Adam Baum
Cindy got tore up from the floor up ewwww
LorinThePhotographer
got “tore up” how old are you? Frankly, you dont’ look all that young yourself.
LittleHobbit13
How in the world was Geena Davis not on the list of “abnormally intelligent”. She’s a member of Mensa, for cryin’ out out!
And dropping out of a college program doesn’t make you smart.
Steve Roberts
So Huey Lewis went to Cornwall? Where in the he!! is that?
sfinsf
It’s a duchy located in the very southwest of England. Had its own Celtic language “Cornish.” People who have an education know these things – or at least know to look the up (I did know it, as I studied British history and have traveled extensively in England).
do not be such a snob
Yeah, genius, he went to school at Cornell University in New York State…one of America’s top-echelon schools.
skinflint
I think she meant Cornell. LOL The truth is that both viewpoints are correct to a point, but making straight “A”s at State U vs. Harvard is quite different. And a degree from one is generally worth much more than the other. Either that is true, or the 56K a year Harvard gets to go to school there is robbery. A number of college graduates are underemployed, and some who never finished college have lots of natural talent to do well in the marketplace. While becoming an engineer brings an above average income, it is nowhere near that of a top model which did not escape the notice of Ms. Crawford. And a stellar singing voice and looks can put you at the top of the earning heap. Just recall a former truck driver named Elvis, who may have finished high school. You can teach people many things, but it’s often hard to improve on what mother nature has already given them. Sending a whole generation of students to college for enlightenment may have made sense when the cost was $1,000 a semester, but not when the cost is nearing 12X that amount.
Timturk
You forgot Geena Davis. She is a member of Mensa. IQ 140.Also Danica McKekkar, a very respected mathematician in the math world.
cazalis
She was second author as an undergraduate, that hardly makes her a mathematician, never mind “respected mathematician”. You need a PhD to be a mathematician, and your work needs many citations before you’re respected in your field.
Tina Shontz
And Geena either qualified, or just missed qualifying as an Olympic archer.
sfinsf
Interesting ! Never knew this – thanks!
blakmira
So finishing college makes you “abnormally intelligent”? That’s funny, most brilliant, creative geniuses I’ve ever heard of are all self-taught & a lot of them HS drop-outs; the most clueless people I know went to college…. especially nowadays where that little piece of paper gets you nowhere but decades in debt.
ObJoeB
Right, no need to attend college to become an engineer or biochemist, that piece of paper is useless…
Victor Zellner
Maybe before the fields became established, but nowadays you can’t get your first job without a BS degree.
David Hite
Um, yes you can.
Victor Zellner
No, the vast majority of people can’t. Perhaps a truly gifted person can, but then they probably would have accepted the challenge of educating themselves.
gollymolly
As far as celebrities go, yes, that is how it works. Your statement is just not true though, you want it to be true because you have heard a short list of intelligent people that didn’t go to collage and you thought, “just maybe i can be smart with out hard work,” but if you made a list of intelligent people that went to college you wouldn’t be able to fit it on any sized sheet of paper that you have ever seen and you would realize that naming a couple names is a pointless exercise. .
Ray
Intelligence either exists in a person or it does not. Education can only cultivate it, not create it.
Andrew
I have made a “Collage” but never went to a “Collage”. Lets be honest you have to be able to spell correctly if you want to make a valid point. The sad part is blakmira is correct. The list of educated people who did not go to college would and could be just as long as the people to did not. The creation of college’s was made as a way to profit off of the intelligent. As well as a way to profit off the not so intelligent. College should not be so standard and should be more select. It’s creation has become more of a business rather than a institution for learning. A way to separate and put value on people through a piece of paper you have to pay an exuberant amount of money for.
aisha
BY the by, ellipsis is 3 dots!
Rebecca
Tsk, tsk, Andrew. You give Molly a hard time about “collage” not college and then proceed to make your own grammatical mistake with “creation of college’s.” No hyphen, sir. Also, Molly spelled college right in the next sentence so I believe she made a typo. Perhaps you did as well, Mr. Hypercritical?
kevin
When you say “hyphen”, do you really mean “apostrophe”?
JudgeJulieLit
You capitalized the common nouns “collage” and “college.” The generic, common noun “college” (when not part of a proper college name, e.g., “Hunter College”) is not capitalized.
You erroneously omitted the apostrophe in your contraction of the phrase “Let us,” “Lets,” which should be “let’s.”
“The … educated [you meant, “uneducated”] people who did not go to college … would … be just as long as the people to [sic, “who”] did not.”
The correct idiom is not to profit “off of” or “off,” but to profit “from.”
There is no apostrophe, ever, in the neutral possessive adjective “its.”
Sentence fragment: your “As well as a way to profit off the not so intelligent.”
Your malapropism “exuberant” should be “exorbitant.”
Do not end a sentence with a preposition; as your last sentence ends in “for.”
Do run (not walk) to your nearest free remedial English grammar lesson series, e.g., in a library college-freshman English Composition book.
Quetillion
I agree with molly. I find blakmira’s statement to be ridiculous, not beyond belief, but very much so. I guess she was watching a documentary that featured famous dropouts Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Their stories don’t tell you that university is pointless, it just tells you that with those 3 white hot minds, it would have delayed the inevitable. I’m a person that people normally view as extremely intelligent, but those guys, are just brilliant in a way that is remarkable to me, and the same goes for my heroes, who are mostly mathematicians and engineers and scientists, who almost always have attained at least Master’s degrees or/and doctorates
dunn7515
I know a couple of people that are rich and famous but they are still stupid and uneducated!!
Not knocking education
Steve Jobs dropped out because his family ran out of money, his words. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs never stopped learning or working in the fields they started in as teens. People who make derisive remarks about going to university can go to the gas station and get their appendix taken out, go to the Circle K mart and pay one of those people for their legal fees when they need a real lawyer. United States is behind other countries in math and engineering, and sounds like you want it to get even worse.
BenDrinkin
Schooling just costs too much in the US. It puts legions of people in permanent debt with degrees they can’t/don’t use. School is great, given you choose the right path.
LorinThePhotographer
Schooling doesn’t have to put you in permanent debt. A person can attend a community college for the first two years and transfer to a better school for the last two and have their degree reflect the better school.
pop_schlepp
What a shame that the school name weighs so heavily on your credentials.
Stentor7
Hey, it helps, take it from someone who has two engineering degrees from UC Berkeley. It’s called the cachet effect, the reputation you acquire indirectly by having gone to a top-tier school. I’ve gotten my resume looked at many times because of where I went to college, & like Lorin said, you can always transfer from a less expensive community college after you take your prerequisites. I went to Santa Monica College before I transferred up to Cal. But SMC is also one of the best community colleges in the nation & the top CC in California with the highest transfer rate into UCLA & Berkeley. My nephew’s a biology major at Harvard, he’s going to have the same enhancement to his resume, wherever he goes from there. My wife is enrolled in the nursing program at SMC, one of the top-ranked in California. Cachet effect dude, cachet effect.
Paul Cowsill
and your shit smells like apple pie too, right?
Stentor7
With whipped cream on top.
DuchessLazy
Berkeley, SMC AND UCLA? Have you changed your name to Marx yet?
wolfcat
So true, it happens everywhere. I can also tell you that the community colleges I went to made me do waaaay more work than the private colleges that carried more affluence and cost 5x more. The private college let a lot of people slide through.
Paula DelaFaria
After two years at Community College…I am up one degree and down $25,000.00, two more years at University will add another $80,000.000. Not sure what you think “permanent debt” is….but I am certainly right in the middle of it.
CommunityCollegeBlows
I just finished my 2 years at CC. I’m 15 grand in debt, and it turns out half my credits aren’t going to transfer to any school around here.
JT
Degrees students can’t use?!? Only if a student chooses an idiotic, non-marketable major.. That’s the fault of the student, not the university.
Ddee711
Good point ! We all cannot have the luxury of majoring in art history! Not and be able to sustain employment that pays the bills. Society has turned education into a fast paced commodity comparable to Mickey D’s! Unless one has enough family money, scholarship or a means to enjoy education for the sake of education. It was always a dream but was never attainable. However, today’s internet does provide for many sources of learning is one is inclined. simply stop playing games, listening to music, and start reading. It is available, if we open our eyes. Not with a credential’s, however. And, yes, they DO make a difference!
Dr.Feel Good
They didn’t get the right counseling to set them on the right direction. Or they didn’t follow the suggestions given to them.
I know several people like that. Just because they wanted to do it their way.
Fred Smith
You are certainly correct that simply having a degree means little. A 2.5 gpa earning a degree in “xxyyzz studies”, from a college with no reputation or accomplished alumni, by someone of moderate intelligence and ambition will not be in much demand. Not everyone is meant for college, not everyone is ready for college.
Gforce4ever
Having a higher-education degree means much more than the cynics here are willing to acknowledge. With a doctorate, a person may exchange a fair amount of the required work experience for the degree, and that could mean up to sixty-thousand-dollars per year difference in wages for the same job. Now, how is a degree worthless? Oh, it might be if the person is lazy, unwilling to move, unwilling to stop smoking reefer, and just wants to get by in life.
Victor Zellner
Behind based on what? The statistic used to rate us against other countries is based upon all high schools averaged together. A recent study found that if you remove inner city schools we rank in the top 5.
LorinThePhotographer
Baloney.
Smh
What’s that really say about the “equality” of Americans? Yeah we are so intelligent if you don’t look at the urban concentration camps we stuffed full of people of color. Where do they get off? Being included in a discussion of the average Americans.
Also America jails more citizens than any other country. Unless we use the same interpretation of the data excluding inner city and non whites. Now it makes sense, we are the land of the free, for white suburban faux Christians.
Who else should we exclude to really get down to “us” as Americans?
Cauthon
“urban concentration camps we stuffed full of people of color”? Maybe it’s time to look at how we did that. For most of my lifetime we have operated on the “new deal” and “great society” running a war on poverty. Maybe war on poor people would be a better name. We have spent $trillions on trying to help the poor by giving them money and goods and services, and they are still stuck in the same place. How about instead of you telling me that it is all my fault, we work together to help the people improve their own lives. There ought to be some way to overcome the negative message that they have to wait for the socialist millenium before they can amount to anything. Gates and Jobs and the rest made their $billions by doing things, not by waiting for help.
Ray
Nonsense. It’s the left and it’s “welfare” state that is to blame for all of that. Dependency and forced poverty in the name of “compassion”. And sadly supported most by the very people victimized. It’s the so-called progressives who are to blame.
Victor Zellner
I saw on a news show this morning that we are the only country in the world who’s government spends more money on the well-to-do school districts than the poor one, where they really need it. I am all for finding a way to bring a decent high school education to everyone.
G L
An education is only as good as what you make of it. The problem isn’t with the education – it’s being provided. The problem is that in a segment of society that’s become dependent, thanks to government social engineering, there’s no longer any value given to taking the initiative, and that includes taking advantage of a free education.
G L
Yeah, sorry, but the state of schools in the inner city is purely the fault of people in the inner city and the fact that, culturally, they don’t value education. It’s nobody else’s fault. The opportunity is provided to them, they just reject it.
So in answer to your question about what it really says about the “equality” of Americans? It says that in a free society, people are free to make bad decisions, too.
As for the prison statistic, what does that have to do with Christians?
Terri
jtran8424
Dear Smh,
After a BA, Summa Cum Laude, and a MA Highest Honors, I went into teaching severely emotionally disturbed, mentally ill, and intellectually challenged K-3, now that’s a job to love. I had done my own original research in my last year in High School, with the approval and frankly the interest of the District Superintendent who gave the “go ahead” and once he gave me the names of the 4 elementary schools in frankly rough and impoverished neighborhoods and the 4 most representative elementary schools in the wealthy areas and the names of the principals and assistant principals to whom I would report, whom he would call first to inform them of my visit, before I went in “to observe the classroom equipment, such as the number of maps and globes were apparent and how many books that each of these teacher had in their classroom libraries (now, the research was limited to the 3rd grades only to keep the analysis as closely
comparable as possible, and the principles involved in the study were told by the Superintendent that the classes were chosen by their magnomity as normal as we could find such that my observations could pinpoint how these children were achieving so well academically and I was observing the activitiies and strategies in use during class instructional periods, which really wasn’t my point, but I did keep an open eye and took notes on the teaching strategies in use to compare with classrooms in the poor schools, and after I gathered all the information I needed by the end of that week at that school, I wrote thank you notes to each teacher, and I have yet to meet a teacher who didn’t want that box of very deluxe chocolate truffles from France, for I was very extremely grateful to them and for the principals and their secretaries, I had something hand made, Multi-cultural school children made from the old round clothes pins each hand painted from my sets of multicultural paints for the the elementary school where I had a short term “internship” for counting numbers in the Kindergarten pod, and I believed very strongly that tolerance and racial blindness begins so incredibly early in life, so far as in vitro. In Boston, where the obstretician and pediatrician of great notoriety, T. Berry Brazleton, famed for his knowledge of the later development of the mind of a child invitro from whom I learned, go ahead and read to him Chaucer, or Shakespeare, or even Gilgamesh if you want to, he’s listening through his little stereophonic sound system with his two little ears, [he’s] listening and what he doesn’t quite understand now, he’s packing it away, just like when you took him to the Museum of Fine Arts and you watched his eyes light up when you were strolling through the galleries of Impressionism just 1 year old, we were taking my old Aunt to see the travelling exhibit on top of the regular exhibit of French Impressionism, and my late husband would tell us to move on, move on, from the very first and huge painting, and our son just kept staring at it and third and last time my dear aunt told him to let the baby stare all he wanted, he was concentrating, and you did NOT talk back to my French Canadien older generation or you would be facing the fate of Shakesperean punishment and living without a head would severly shorten his career as an architect, but being a Vietnamese Refugee he was highly discriminated against, never informed that Americans didn’t work on weekend or traditional holidays, nothing about vacations and was making about as much as myself, a corporate executive assistant, and had no health insurance, and wasn’t quite ready to deliver on the health insurance, the holidays, vacation time and a big NYC firm with an opening for a Chief Designer, who knew about him from his projects gave him a call to just think about it. Well, he wanted to be loyal, but I asked him to think about what if I had a baby and the hospital costs would be unbelieveable without insurancer, never mind astronomical if the baby had a birth defect, so if his current employer wasn’t going to give him insurance, for the heaven’s sake, even just health insurance, I would handle the bills by myself and you take your time to find any better job than what he had, so he took the job with the NYC job at their Boston office and got paid a real salary for an architect, 4 weeks vacay, paternity leave, which came in handy 2 years later, then life insurance for me and the baby,
a huge baby shower, and the NY Boss meant a huge baby shower with all the chief designers from the NY Office to celebrate the event, it was Christmas, started at 1 PM and went along until the last commuter flight out of Boston back to New York, and he was respected, no coming into work with nobody else showing up all day long on holidays, and they didn’t tell him it was a Federal Holiday, never telling him he had sick days, why bother since they didn’t give him insurance, and I was bitter, VERY BITTER.
Animals over humans any day
citizenship?
Why so racist?
Ah hem, OR you could just measure against the *actual* average of schools in China (for instance) and not just the elite ones they report the scores from…
Victor Zellner
Racist? what are you talking about? I was trying to make a point that we need to do something about improving education in the urban schools.
Veronica Vautour
But are we removing the equivalent demographic from the other countries’ results?
gina kasim
your living in a i am the know er of all things and do not allow others there rights, do something about your EGO.
Itbloo
Can we just chalk it up to being very bright? I think that after a 115-120 IQ, it’s has a lot to do with drive and determination. I wonder how many physicians, talented surgeons, come in under a 130 IQ.
DuchessLazy
it’s STILL true that you can go through a university and be an idiot. Plenty of doctors out there for instance, who get sued or license taken away because their dangerous and obviously not that smart.
Not knocking education
People who invest in their education rather than in all the new tech toys that come out–phones, games, newest computer when their works for their needs-or the latest fad of anything– will get much farther in the world. They will make over 1 million more in income than most high school graduates who are not able to go to college or choose not to.– that statistic has held true for years now.
ohgodkillmenow
What do religion, real estate, elections, and currency all have in common with education? They’re all systems of social function which rely solely on the ignorance of the general population to flourish. It’s all just hype and mediocrity.
LorinThePhotographer
Yeah, higher education is just hype and mediocrity. LOL What myopic tiny little planet do you hail from? If you had to go to court do you want a lawyer with a degree or would you prefer to defend yourself?
What if you needed surgery? Do you want to perform the operation yourself? LMAO wake up.
Victor Zellner
Seriously? Doesn’t the commune to which you belong own the land they farm? If not, do they rent it from someone using currency?
Lita
Nowhere in the article does it say that finishing college makes one “abnormally intelligent.” It would appear that you have an agenda, other than participating in a reasonable, intelligent discussion. Pity.
Michael Saxon Fischer
For those of you knocking formal education, you are arguing an absurd point. Statistically the highest paid workers in this society have a college degree. There are useless majors in colleges and I agree that much about the college system is broken and designed to drain one’s bank account. However, that aside, that piece of paper opens doors that otherwise would be barred. Try being a neurophysiologist without a formal education. Try to practice law or medicine (yeah, forget about the licensing issues, try learning either of those disciplines in home school well enough to do your child’s appendectomy or represent yourself in a murder case in which you are the defendant. There are brilliant people out there who do and don’t go through formal education: there are exponentially more options available for the brilliant ones who do get the formal education.
LorinThePhotographer
Can’t believe how many morons are out there knocking formal education. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
sfinsf
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you don’t have a college degree, you’re going to be working in McDonald’s. And if you don’t have a Master’s degree in most fields, you’re not even going to be considered. And believe me, they’re not counting degrees from Univ of Phoenix, etc!
David Hite
I live in the Bay Area, and you are full of it. TONS of programmers are self taught. Tons of designers are as well. Some jobs really only care about your skills and quality of work.
Victor Zellner
You forgot to put in your closing parenthesis.
snoglydox
Maybe Michael wants us to wait for it.
Joseph Baltz
troll
Victor Zellner
I’m sorry Joseph, but are you calling me a troll, or yourself? I see this seems to be the only comment you made here. And that comment was made on the 6th or 7th one I made.
VVV
I was raised by blue collar parents that wanted their kids to get a college degree, back when a degree meant something. I have a masters from a big 10 school and hold an executive position in a Fortune 500 company and you are so right. The most clueless and least interesting people I have ever met tend to be the so called highly educated. Hard sciences aside, college degrees today are a poor investment.
LorinThePhotographer
Sounds like you talk out of both sides of your mouth. So without your degree you would hold your current position?
You sound incredibly clueless yourself, to state hard sciences are the only worthwhile degrees. I have a degree in photojournalism and while I make my living as an advertising photographer- completely different field, there is NO way I could be making the salary I make without the training and skills I received in school. I am incredibly well trained in lighting and negotiate any contract. I have friends who are logo designers- and I mean people who design for Coke, Hershey, Cliff Bar… They all have higher degrees in art- college degrees that allowed them to develop their skills for their insanely high paying jobs.
VVV
Apparently you failed reading comprehension. Try again sparky.
LorinThePhotographer
Hardly, perhaps your writing skills leave something to be desired.
VVV
That’s right, a page out of the leftiist playbook. Blame others for your own shortcomings.
LorinThePhotographer
what are you even talking about? You literally make no sense.
Who am I blaming? “leftist”- lol- YOU have NO idea who you are talking to- “Leftist” ROFLMAO
Victor Zellner
I agree that people with Liberal Arts degrees earn too much. thank you for pointing that out.
LorinThePhotographer
Hardly, sounds like sour grapes to me.
If a photographer or designer’s work is being used to on a Times SQ billboard or can of coke or in a national magazine and their work is what is being used to get the viewer to take notice and buy the product, they should be compensated accordingly.
Ghost of Dost
“… logo designers for Coke, Hershey, Cliff Bar”… “with insanely high paying jobs…”
If you train a monkey in a cage to perform some meaningless task to get a reward – say press some buttons in random order, then screech obnoxiously and throw feces at another monkey, you have in no way, shape or form enhanced this monkey’s real intelligence or improved its sense of well being. In fact, I’d wager that the most clever of these monkeys are starting to formulate a feeling of injustice and absurdity that we humans have to deal with on a daily basis and think “Why the F is this happening to me?”
Well, I’m off to create some real art…
LorinThePhotographer
You are nothing more than a bitter myopic probably wannabe artist. The fact that you don’t see the value in commercial work is laughable. Logo design is one of the most difficult types of art ever. It requires the artist to covey a thought, meaning…. in a very simplistic nature. Why don’t you google Paul Rand, one of the greatest logo designer of all time who has designed IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’s NeXT. These logos especially the UPS logo is masterful, in how he conveyed fast package shipping in such a simple design. But, I doubt you will google it, but instead you will laugh at the thought of being art and continue to live in your narrow minded world- that you are so comfortable in and apparently have resided in for a very long time. “monkeys and feces” lol you sound so angry, and I find that so amusing.
sfinsf
THe people I really feel sorry for are people who somehow think that the only things worth learning in life are those that will make them a clearly defined amount of money. We are going to have a society where NO one knows anything about art, literature, history…but everyone can program a stupid app that will be obsolete in 3 months. Not a world I want to live in. One of the reasons our country is in such big trouble right now is we had a president for 8 years who couldn’t have found Iraq or Iran on a map — and knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the world geography, cultures or religions.
photonblaster
I think he went to one of those state colleges in one of the seven states no one else has ever heard of.
Victor Zellner
Anyone can program a stupid app? If it’s stupid, it will not have the chance to become obsolete. Cute how you turned this into a political issue. Go liberals!
Charluti
Blakmira, of course simply going to college does not make you especially smart, but in order to get into a high level school such as Colombia,Vassar you need very high test scores. Getting a Ph.D. at UCLA in neuroscience requires extremely high intelligence and a huge amount of hard work.Simply being accepted to Northwestern University to studying chemical engineering is a big accomplishment, but you have to be really brilliant to be offered a full scholarship like Crawford was. Anyone who has a doctorate in physics is probably a lot smarter than your friends who didn’t go to college but are doing ok. Don’t conflate the monetary value of a degree in terms of earning and what it represents as an intellectual accomplishment. Also don’t conflate creativity with intelligence. Creativity may be more important, actually, sometimes but is not the same as intelligence. If you need an emergency operation,your anesthesiologist needs to be smart enough to calculate the right amount of drug for your body size or you will either feel people cutting you or you will never wake up. You don’t need the anesthesiologist to get creative!
So, it is not going to college vs, not going it is the subject matter studied by these celebs as well as the elite programs that indicate that they are probably very brilliant.
worlhood
Don’t confuse creativity with intelligence. They are not the same and it is certainly not that one trait is better than the other. We hear about some creative people because they make AND then SELL products or services that affect our daily lives. However, we don’t hear about the creative people who develop new lab techniques, new mathematical concepts, new engineering or other things that hugely affect our future, but aren’t known to the general public today. I believe it was James Q. Wilson, along with others, that say ingenuity or creativity are a function of three major components (and all three are essential): intelligence, knowledge and diversity of experience. All are distinctly different elements of humans thought process and the balance of three creates the opportunity for creativity. In fact, this is what separates America from all our competitors in the world. Russia, China, Japan and Korea as examples have no more or less intelligent people than we do. They do have an educational system which tracks children at an early age in a single discipline, thus often beat the U.S. in math and science scores, but the the U.S. is the major power in the world because it combines these with diversity (in education through a liberal arts focus rather than tracked students and in the vastly diverse population we enjoy). Russia and China also have diverse populations, but they remain isolated and separated. Again, though, don’t confuse the creative people that the media puts in front of you because it relates to products you recognize with the vastness of the creativity that goes on in this country every day and at a far far greater rate per capita than any place else in the world.
Etherbeard
There’s a world of difference between finishing college, and earning a phd in neuroscience or physics or a masters in math. And having any sort of science degree fits the tone of the list and is uncommon even among college graduates. The only one that makes no sense, at least without more information, is that musician.
Stentor7
The majors they studied are a part of why they are assessed to be extremely intelligent. The three hardest majors in engineering are chemical, electrical, & nuclear. Plus science, math, & physics majors are no walk in the park, especially graduate degrees, so yeah, you have to be very intelligent, probably 2 to 3 sigma above the mean IQ to get into those programs & matriculate.
Empress NG
They don’t even need to finish apparently. A bit like the British royal family.
weissgirl
You can also include being born into a wealthy family, going to the best schools. I helped a mother/daughter shop for back to college last year and it’s sad wondering why they were wasting money on sending her when she could barely hold a conversation. Her mother thanked me and once she was out of hearing range stated it’s a good thing she’s born with rich parent and grandparents other wise she’d have to stripe to make a living. Oh yes she’s going into the family business. Who would hirer her.
Mr.Ape
I was thinking exactly that, most of then (The celebs on this list) didnt even finish it, they just went to collegue and thats it.
Meredith DePercy Moreland
The problem is… this article is titled “12 Celebrity Secret Geeks” but the link, that brought many, is titled “7 Celebs That Are Abnormally Intelligent”… I guess we need to use our own 6th sense to weed those 7 from the 12 here. This seems to be the reason most of the arguments, here, have been started.
That being said… Intelligence is not in a piece of paper… it is in everything you do.
I noticed that ‘LorinthePhotographer’ (as well as others, here) is highly sensitive regarding her ‘piece of paper’. She is certainly entitled to have pride in her own personal achievement and abilities…. BUT…
A piece of paper only gives others one piece of information to go on in order to assess a stranger’s dedication, knowledge and/or abilities on a subject. But it is not PROOF of anything.
I know of more College/University graduates who are as dumb as a box of rocks and haven’t half a brain in their head. I know of even more people without the “higher education” with more sense, compassion and ability.
This doesn’t garner in me or in many others, of whom witness the same, to have as much respect for our institutions of higher learning as we once had. In many cases, it’s just a place to avoid the real world and/or work for 4 more years, living off of mummy and daddy’s, some grant or the tax payers money, while learning the fine art of ‘beer bonging’. Rather than seeing it as a chance to enrich themselves they see it as a chance to enrich their future bank accounts.
Many go for a degree for the sheer purpose of getting ‘more money’ when they, finally, do work. Do I want my doctor (insert profession) to be one who is dedicated to his field because he is ‘geeked on it’? or because it was the field he could make the most money in?
More over… do employers care about what the degree is in? or just that it is a degree? More and more employers have and continue to give less credence to a poor guy who watched and learned his field since he was 10 to a guy with a BS in basket-weaving. Unless you manufacture baskets… what is the point? But there they are, hiring people with degrees in Liberal Arts to be Supervisors and given more money to boot.
As for the ‘perform your own appendectomy’ statements, they are sophomoric in nature. Such comments are linear, stereotypical and limited in scope just as much (if not more so) than those touting the abilities of the ‘self-taught’ or ‘naturally gifted’. An expanded education can enhance that which was already there, encourage growth or stifle that which could have innovated or inspired. It can’t create intelligence or talent in a person. It can inform the ignorant and open the mind to it’s limitless possibilities just as much as it can create the ignorant and limit free thinking. Many have become places to institutionalize our young… literally brainwash them.
In the field of medicine, one would (obviously) look for formal training to be trusted with such a precious commodity such as life as would be the case for anything one finds precious. Yet… still… I would much rather see their Transcripts on the wall rather than their Certificate… as even a “D” (or whatever number that institution uses to denote ‘less than satisfactory’) is passing.
A certificate only claims one has passed the requirements to graduate, it doesn’t guarantee what that person has really learned or will even retain. It doesn’t always reflect the quality of the those individuals that do the training either.
I know plenty of smart people that should be in charge of things vs. the “highly educated”. One need only to look to the Military to find glaring examples of knuckles bared, hard knocks, hands on ‘know how’ vs. the powers that push them around just on a BS in Basket-weaving alone.
Dedication and interest in one’s field is admirable and worthy of praise. Hitting the books with diligence and purpose is to be commended and rewarded. Intelligence and responsibility may be expected in one with a degree, but it should not be assumed.
I think both sides need to use their brains and their own eyes rather than stereotypes to define intelligence and/or ability. Otherwise, we are just pitting,one group against another for less than good reasons… AGAIN.
Ddee711
There are brilliant people everywhere. Many do not do well, due to boredom with courses, classes and simple routines that they avoid. Failing a class does not mean one is an idiot, just as passing a class does not necessarily mean one is amazingly intelligent!
Ddee711
I think the operative words used here are “that YOU have heard of”. I would suggest, do not assume every creative genius has been heard of or chooses to be !
blakmira
Even though I dropped out of 10th grade, I now get paid to proofread and edit. For instance, you incorrectly put the end quotations before the period in your first sentence. Regarding your second sentence, I would change it to read, “I would suggest that you do not assume…” I would also edit out the space before the exclamation mark, although I’d be willing to attribute that to a typo as opposed to grammatical ignorance.
So….. what college did you say you were recruiting for? Or which credit corporation do you work for collecting on student loans? LOL
Fail.
Martine
Depends on the college and the degree. We could argue all day about what “abnormally” intelligent means. However, a degree in Nuclear Physics is above what most people could achieve. And for all your blabbing, a person with a college degree is about TEN TIMES MORE LIKELY to have gainful employment. Look at the statistics. And… Who are these “geniuses” that dropped out of high school? Steve Jobs did drop out of college, but audited classes afterwards to the equivalent of a degree. Bill Gates was at Harvard for a couple of years, and also audited classes on his own…not to mention that all of his great ideas came from his college years. That takes them very far from a HS drop out. Besides hip hop artists I can’t think of any particular successes that didn’t bother finishing high-school at least. Most of the great people I can think of historically, and today, did graduate from a university.
asdfdsfdsf
let me guess, you didn’t go to college? lol
Joe Schmoe
Finishing college doesn’t make you abnormally intelligent, but a doctorate in neuroscience does. Cant tell me that is the “norm”?
Django