[Blarg]

Well then we'd have to discount people like Socrates, who would stand still all day in the rain thinking, and Einstein, who couldn't remember his own address or phone number, and bought one identical set of shirts and pants which he repeated throughout the week because his mind apparently couldn't handle matching his clothes.

In practical terms, it seems clear that genius can be fairly useless. Look at idiot savants. How many rain mans can really keep it together well enough to earn their way through life winning at blackjack? That more rounded sorts of genius might not live up to their potential seems fairly likely, judging by the history of geniuses -- many of whom had bizarre, unbalanced, and sometimes disappointing lives. And those are just the ones we've heard about, which is necessarily(if you buy my argument) just a sliver of the potential ones out there.

And look how much luck plays a part. One of the most interesting mathematicians of this century was an impoverished Indian. What if he had been sent out to scratch up moss from rocks to feed his family instead of being channeled into the expression of his genius? We'll never have any way of knowing how many geniuses are throttled in their cradles, undernourished into normalcy or retardation, terrorized into obliviousness, or discouraged into any number of mental maladies or dead ends. Luck plays a discouragingly terrible part in life. I'm glad I live here rather than so many other places.

I agree in giving emotional intelligence the credit it is due. In practical terms, it can be one of the most valuable intelligences there is.