BBC: Woody Allen 'sad' for producer (Harvey Weinstein) over sexual assault allegation

[NNadir]

31. "Genius" is the most abused word in the world, especially in Allen's case, and as for "IQ..."

...it is a pop concept that actually has no meaning but is also widely abused.

(I explored this elsewhere: A Note on This Race and IQ Business.)

In this exploration, I noted that the definition of "genius" as a general term, ignores the vast diversity and specificity of human skills and enterprise.

Perhaps if one's values low level wit in movies about neurotics in New York seeking to screw women and carrying on about it night and day, one might regard Allen as "genius," I suppose.

I don't find it ingenious. I once found it amusing, but no more.

I really don't care who Ronan Farrow's father is, it's not an issue with me, I am merely stating that Ronan Farrow is a far more impressive person than Allen is.

I am not by the way, a total genetic reductionist in any case. Some of the world's most impressive minds arose from people with rather ordinary backgrounds. Richard Feynman's father was a tailor. Glenn Seaborg's father was a laborer/machinist. Michael Faraday's father was a blacksmith, who by the way, could neither afford nor expressed any interest in giving his son any kind of formal education, but Faraday nonetheless, with no formal education, became one of the greatest scientists ever. Abraham Lincoln, also an autodidact, was the son of an illiterate farmer.

These great intellects all arose from effort.

I very much doubt that Ronan Farrow "got" his intellect from anyone. He seems to have earned it on his own. His values may, of course, be attributable to his upbringing by his mother, but his intellect is his own. It doesn't seem Allen was much involved with it.