Famous Geniuses Who Vanished Or Went Into Hiding

There’s a quote attributed to EB White that goes, “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” The list below appears to confirm that, with stories about geniuses who disappeared, geniuses who vanished, and, yes, some geniuses who seem to be some flavor of what people used to call, insensitively, “crazy.”

But the plural of anecdote, as they say, isn’t data. These so-called mad geniuses aren’t a homogeneous group of crackpots. Some of these geniuses went into hiding for perfectly sensible reasons, such as to flee the Gestapo or avoid pushy and privacy-invading press.

#genius #missing #WeridHistory

[keith_]

Genius does live one floor below madness. Sometimes with a roommate called crippling depression.

[lavonewhitmer]

“Mathsputin” is the best one of I’ve heard on this channel. Fabulous!

[jtgd]

I respect people who prefer privacy and just wanna live their lives

[Nettle]

Interesting story for you.

My father had an uncle who was exceedingly brilliant. At the age of about 5 he had taught himself how to speak French by listening to the radio (they lived in northern Canada) and also figured out how the language would be written (male and female, verbs, etc.) He would also baffle the teacher at his one room school house by looking at the blackboard, and being able to tell the teacher exactly what was written on it after only a quick glance (memorizing whole paragraphs in seconds)

Sadly he grew up in a small isolated community and never got to realize his full potential. He ended up being a recluse without any friends, or wife and eventually died in his early 20s from a likely heart condition.

[matthewalexanderlemma]

It’s interesting you follow J.D. Salinger with Thomas Pynchon. Many were once convinced Salinger was Pynchon.

[lzal]

Barbara Follet’s disappearance is the most fishy. The husband should have been looked at.

[amandagreen]

I’ve always wanted to be rich, but I’ve never wanted to be famous. At least I’ve nailed anonymity.

[EclecticDD]

Interesting. I'll add French lawyer Jacques Verges 1970 - 1978. He even commented "I find it highly amusing that no one, in our modern police state, can figure out where I was for almost 10 years."

[LadyInReeed]

Grigori Perelman " rejected the prize of one million dollars, saying that he considered the decision of the board of the Clay Institute to be unfair, in that his contribution to solving the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Richard S. Hamilton, the mathematician who pioneered the Ricci flow partly with the aim of attacking the conjecture."
I took the quote from Wikipedia because I can't remember in what video I recently saw the same info.

[jons.]

It isn't an unusual thing for highly intelligent people to want to break from academics! I had a classmate friend of mine I knew from kindergarten all the way through the end of high school and everyone knew he was going to be a major scientist or something like it! Several years later I met him by chance and at that time he was installing linoleum in houses and said he was perfectly happy when I asked him what everyone else had about higher academics! But about ten years later I saw an article about him and got in touch via email and in the last bit of our conversation he excused himself and said he was working on completion of some sort of doctorate!

[kirbymarchbarcena]

When people get famous, they will surely miss their privacy and tend to crave for it

[andrewweaver]

The Voice from WEIRD HISTORY is my inner monologue voice now. All must bow before The Voice!

[lancelael]

For some reason I was expecting to hear some creepy pasta stories with dry humour. The humour as always did not disappoint 😂

[tremorsfan]

Pynchon once said that recluse is a code word for doesn't like to talk to the press. He lives in New York City.

[cynthiaorszula]

Interesting! The Autism Spectrum comes to mind. Often, “people skills” are difficult and uncomfortable and “downtime” is extremely important. For many, extra attention is unwanted. Many individuals on the Spectrum exhibit a savant, (or nearly savant, ) quality. They just want to do the brilliant things they do, and move along with their regular way of being in life.

[MJA]

pretty amazing stories! Some self-determined and some undetermined 😮

[kevincruise]

You got to love that golden voice of that weird history dude. I wish I knew his name because he is talented

[btetschner]

The Barbara Follett and Nick Gill cases are my favorite mysterious cases of the video.
In reference to Nick Gill, what would a runway chef even do? Does he have underground ceremonies fit for a king?

[btetschner]

A+ video!
Fascinating and very mysterious topic!

[TragicFlames]

Love to see it haha...and also a bit spooked