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Physical Genius Gladwell

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Malcom Gladwell’s “The Physical Genius” and Mike Rose’s “The Working Life of a Waitress” each write about how people can be the best at what they do. Gladwell explained the idea of physical genius, or having the spectacular affinity for translating thought into action in a way no one else in their respective fields can. Physical genius despite its name, is the mental ability to chunk information, mentally practice, and have a special feel that others don't have. Gladwell used exemplary examples like Charlie Wilson, Yo-Yo Ma, and Tony Gwynn although he missed the opportunity to include any blue color jobs or women. Mike Rose wrote primarily about the interview with his mother who spent her life mastering the art of waitressing. He showed that …show more content…

By not including any in his examples and not even mentioning them, intentional or not, it makes the reader feel like only white collar men can be physical geniuses. However, the truth is that anyone who is the best at what they do can be a physical genius through visualization and development of mental abilities that others just don’t develop. The best cook, soldier, teacher, or janitor in the world is a physical genius. Being a physical genius is being the very best at whatever you are passionate about. Whether the ability to be a physical genius is innate or something you can develop over time, I'm not sure. As was explained in Rose however, the waitresses’ brains developed a stronger short term, goal oriented memory to best do their job. However, that does not make every good waitress a physical genius. Gladwell invented the term physical genius, and through his examples, only showed those who were wealthy or white collar. Gladwell's examples were too narrow minded to one demographic, and would've made more sense with a wider view. Rose's piece did a good job passively refuting Gladwell's demographic misunderstanding by showing in as detailed terms as surgery how complicated a job like waitressing can be and how much work and development it takes to

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Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence.

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The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school.

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“Intelligence is closely associated with formal education- the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long- and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose). What Rose is trying to infer is that just because you are labeled blue collar: meaning you have to earn your income from manual labor, and have lack of educational knowledge, does not mean you cannot earn the knowledge in your work career. There are many opportunities to learn from your job even if you are less experienced. “...One who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work.

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He wants use to see that blue-collar jobs take more intelligence then what we think: it's more than just an elementary job. Mike Rose explains to us as the reader how intelligence is the main factor in becoming successful. I agree with him 110%. Intelligence is not

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In conclusion, mental and physical strength are necessary in order to survive. You need to be physically fit in order to move things and overpower competition. Also, you need to be mentally fit and smart to think of a plan. You need to be able to be both of these things, not to the extreme however, you don’t need to be a genius or an Olympic weightlifter. So, in conclusion one needs to be strong and smart to

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He also points out that people assume less time in school means that a person is less intelligent. First in Rose’s article he starts telling his personal experiences as a foundation for his claims to conceive the emotional effect towards the blue-collar workers. He writes about his family members to

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Do you think someone with a higher education-level job requires more from the worker than someone that started working right from high school? Or do you think that not going to college after high school means that you just stop learning? One of Mike Rose’s main ideas in the Blue-Collar Brilliance is the question, is there really a difference between white and blue collar worker? Mike Rose is being persuasive in the text because he shows how his family went through blue collar work. I think Mike Rose is being persuasive in writing this.

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