Here is my top 10 list of the most overrated geniuses. The rankings are based upon how overrated the“geniuses”starting from the lesser overrated geniuses ending with the most overrated genius.

#10–Bill Gates
I don’t know why anyone would consider Bill Gates to be a genius, it’s a mystery to me.
I’m not sure if Bill Gates belongs on this list since I don’t consider him to be a genius of any kind. Since some atheists keep saying that“Bill Gates invented the computer”or something foolish like that I decided to put him on this list.
Bill Gates never invented the computer, the keyboard, the mouse, the GUI desktop concept, or anything like that. Yet for some reason many people really believe that he did.
The actual pioneers of the computer were people like Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, and John von Neumann.
The first computer to use the desktop mouse GUI was the Xerox Alto.

#9–James D. Watson
James  D. Watson and Francis Crick are universally hailed by biologists as great geniuses for being the DNA co-discoverers.
So why is he overrated? Firstly, the data Watson and Crick used was collected by Rosalind Franklin who is basically ignored. Secondly, proposing a double helix structure for DNA given x-ray data requires little ingenuity or intelligence. I guess this explains why Watson’s IQ is only 124 (Crick’s IQ was supposedly only 115). Thirdly, according to Watson himself Crick was more clever than him.
There are contributions that require little intellect but lots of ingenuity, there are contributions that require lots of intellect but little ingenuity, and there are contributions that require both intellect and ingenuity. This contribution however, doesn’t require neither ingenuity nor intellect, just simple observations.
If Watson and Crick didn’t discover the double-helix structure of DNA then virtually any other biologist(s) would have given the data. It’s a contribution based off simple observations that would’ve happened by virtually any biologist, not a special kind of contribution.

#8–Michio Kaku
People who watch TV probably think Michio Kaku is one of the greatest living physicists, but physicists don’t. There’s probably not even one physicist who would rank Michio Kaku within the top 50 or even the top 100 best living physicists.
Michio Kaku has made some contributions, but he still isn’t even close to being one of the best physicists in modern times.
Michio Kaku is more of a media figure who writes on popular science and appears on radio and TV shows a lot.
Other physicists who are regarded as the best living physicist like Edward Witten are virtually ignored in the media.

7–Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is overrated in the same manner that Michio Kaku is. People who watch TV probably think he’s one of the best living physicists even though he isn’t.
Just like Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking is a media figure. Other physicists like Steven Weinberg andEd Wittenare completely ignored in the media.
Just as with Michio Kaku there’s probably no working physicist who considers him to be the best physicist or even close even though the media portrays him to be the best physicist.

#6–William James Sidis
When people talk about prodigies William J. Sidis is almost always mentioned. He was an extraordinarily fast learner and had an estimated IQ of 250-300.
There are many web sites dedicated to Sidis and his supposed“genius”. They will always mention how fast Sidis learned this, what he calculated, etc….but what about Sidis’s contributions?
William Sidis doesn’t have any significant contributions. That’s why he’s overrated. What’s so special about being a super-fast learner and contributing nothing significant? There is nothing special about it.
So what’s Sidis’s most significant contribution? A perpetual calendar?

#5–Benjamin Franklin
When people who have no knowledge of science think about who made electrical technology possible they probably think of Benjamin Franklin.
The only problem is that Benjamin Franklin contributed very little to science and has very little to do with the advent of electrical technology.
The“key”story about Benjamin Franklin may also be a myth. He like other overrated geniuses on this list is just another media figure.
The actual scientists that were primarily responsible for making electrical technology possible were Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell who are both completely ignored in the media.
For Benjamin Franklin being so falsely associated with electrical technology he ranks as the 5th most overrated genius.


#4–Thomas Edison
When people think of inventors Thomas Edison almost always come to mind. They probably think of a light bulb or a phonograph. He is a very celebrated figure in the media.
So why is Edison overrated? Edison has over 1000 patents (the 3rd most prolific inventor) but Edison bought many patents and was not the originator of many of the ideas. Edison had setup many different labs and had many others working on inventions. So the vast majority of Edison’s inventions do not independently come from Edison.
Edison was not even the first one to invent the incandescent light bulb. Edison and his team invented an improved version of the incandescent light bulb, many had existed before. Fluorescent light bulbs though are much more efficient and an overall better invention than incandescent light bulbs.
Other genius engineers like Nikola Tesla are almost ignored in the media.
Edison was not the genius inventor as portrayed by the media but instead a businessman.
Since Edison did not work independently and was mostly a businessman he ranks as the 4th most overrated genius.

All the same ,they can't be classify as fools like the billions in d world

#3–Albert Einstein
So who’s the person who’s so associated with the word genius that the image or thought of him comes in mind when the word“genius”is mentioned? It’s got to be Einstein.
Einstein is overrated for many reasons. Many people seem to believe that Einstein was a great mathematician. They probably saw on TV“E=mc2”and thought he must have been a great mathematician but in reality Einstein was not a mathematician at all. Mathematicians make mathematical contributions, Einstein applied already existing mathematics (in this case Riemannian geometry).
Another reason that Einstein is overrated is because many people think his ideas were original, but they were not. Einstein seems to have gotten a lot of his ideas directly from Michael Faraday, who Einstein was a fan of. Faraday who is ignored in the media tried to unify gravity with other forces long before Einstein. Faraday had long emphasized his belief that everything was unified as one (magnetism, light, gravity, etc…) primarily because of his religion. The main difference between Einstein’s ideas and Faraday’s is that Einstein added in the space-time dimension, but this idea is not original either since it had already appeared in science fiction novels.
Einstein is also overrated for being known by many as the smartest person ever. Some people have“estimated”his IQ to be over 200 (which is most likely impossible). People like Newton, Archimedes, Gauss, and others were likely much smarter than Einstein but they are not portrayed as such in the media.
Since the mathematics for General Relativity came from Riemann, a lot of Einstein’s ideas are inspired from Faraday, and for Einstein being so synonymous with the word“genius”he ranks as the 3rd most overrated genius.
#2–Pythagoras of Samos
When non-mathematicians think of the best mathematicians Pythagoras likely comes to mind. Most non-mathematicians probably think Pythagoras was the #1 mathematician or close to #1, but mathematicians don’t.
In reality Pythagoras is not the best mathematician or even close. People like Newton, Euler, Gauss, Riemann, and many other mathematicians who are completely ignored in the media for their mathematical brilliance were much better much mathematicians than Pythagoras by far.
Euler and Gauss (the mathematicians that are arguably the two best of all time) are virtually ignored in the media. I wonder what things would be like if Euler and Gauss were mentioned in the media as much as Pythagoras is.
The Pythagorean theorem and a proof of the Pythagorean theorem are not difficult things to discover. There exists literally hundreds of different proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. Most of what Pythagoras and his students did are not difficult to discover or re-discover. Just compare re-discovering the Pythagorean theorem to rediscovering Euler’s identity and it’s easy to see which requires more ingenuity.
Even though it’s true that Pythagoras and his students made some contributions Pythagoras is still far from ranking within the top 10 or top 20 best mathematicians, which is why he is one of the most super-overrated figures.
Since the vast majority of Pythagoras’s contributions are easy to re-discover and since Pythagoras is synonymous with the word“mathematician”despite being far from the best mathematician he ranks as the 2nd most overrated genius.

#1– Leonardo da Vinci
So who’s the most super-overrated genius of all time? It’s Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci is universally hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of all time. He is celebrated for his art, inventions, science, and being multi-talented.
Leonardo da Vinci is the most overrated genius of all time mainly because of the many outlandish claims made about how much of a genius he was.
Many different sources have“estimated”Da Vinci’s IQ to be over 200. This however is quite impossible. It’s literally impossible that Da Vinci had an IQ of 200+. Whenever asked for legitimate reasons as to how Da Vinci could of had an IQ of 200+ people will usually respond with an appeal to authority saying something like“this expert said so”or“this person said so”.
Da Vinci himself said“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory”.
In order to correctly estimate IQ you have to estimate how well someone would be able to answer the most difficult IQ-style questions.
I know that Da Vinci’s IQ would not be any higher than 160 based on some simple observations:
–At least half of Da Vinci’s inventions failed when tested, this does not show high IQ at all
–Da Vinci tried to learn mathematics but didn’t really get very far
–Da Vinci was not a super-fast learner (the main sign of high IQ)
–Da Vinci’s works do not require a high IQ
Nothing Da Vinci did demonstrates that he had an IQ of 200 or higher or even close to that. Da Vinci is so overrated that people think his IQ was higher than Newton’s. But how could that be possible? Newton did things like solving thebrachistochrone problemin a few hours, but what did Leonardo da Vinci do to demonstrate his intelligence? I would be surprised if Da Vinci had an IQ higher than 140.
Da Vinci’s inventions have also been grossly exaggerated. Da Vinci drew drawings and different people have personally interpreted some of the same drawings to mean different things. This has been the case with Da Vinci’s supposed calculator. Objectors once again claim this device wouldn’t actually work and isn’t actually a drawing of a calculator, but people personally interpret it to be so.
This is also the case with Da Vinci’s supposed helicopter. It’s not really a helicopter, it’s just an aerial screw. Helicopters are closer to Chinese bamboo toys than they are to Da Vinci’s sketches. The media and others simply overrated Da Vinci so much they decided to call it a helicopter (some how).
Da Vinci never actually built or tested most of his inventions and at least half of them failed when tested. The vast majority of the models of Da Vinci’s designs that really do work are modified versions of Da Vinci’s designs or strange interpretations of what Da Vinci’s designs mean. In order to get most of Da Vinci’s designs to work modifications are necessary.
The more people test out Da Vinci’s designs the more people find that his designs don’t work. What’s genius about coming up with failed designs? Basically anyone who has artistic talent, an IQ of 130 or higher, and spends all their time focusing on inventing new machines would be able to come up with lots of inventions (and having half of them fail).
Da Vinci being far ahead of his time is also an exaggerated claim. Da Vinci was born in the year 1452 AD, not the year 287 BC like Archimedes. Basically everything Da Vinci had done had been independently re-discovered without much effort by others within 200 years or less or had been done prior to Da Vinci. Since at least half of Da Vinci’s designs didn’t work I’m not sure how much it would have mattered if Da Vinci’s writings had been discovered much earlier. During Da Vinci’s time being ahead of your time didn’t take much.
Other much better engineers like Heron, Archimedes, Al-Jazari, and Tesla are ignored in the media.
Al-Jazari for instance pre-dates Da Vinci by more than 200 years, he invented one of the first programmable analog computers, camshaft, segmented gears, and more. His book is much more detailed than Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, all of his designs work, and even though he pre-dates Da Vinci he is completely ignored in the media.
Or what about the super-genius engineer and mathematician Archimedes, who pre-dates Da Vinci by more than 1600 years. He is also ignored in the media.
Da Vinci is perhaps one of the greatest genius idiots of all time. For Da Vinci being so super-overrated that people think his IQ was 200+, for at least half of Da Vinci’s designs not working, for his inventions being grossly overrated, and for the media and many others super-overrating him he ranks as the #1 very most overrated person of all time.
There doesn’t even exist one other genius in all of human history as overrated as Da Vinci.
From my list we can see that the media is full of lies and exaggerations. Those are all my thoughts on who’s overrated. I wonder how controversial my claims may become…

48 laws of power
Law 7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit.
That the case of Thomas Edison...
It also takes a genius to pull off such tricks.

EMEKA1MILLION: 48 laws of power
Law 7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit.
That the case of Thomas Edison...
It also takes a genius to pull off such tricks.

Wow!!! U tuk me bak memory lane into dat book

Ok.i'll be right back let me do a little research

Other genius engineers like Nikola Tesla are almost ignored in the media.

i always wonder why tesla is hardly recognized or mentioned despite all his genuine invention. In fact Thomas Edison stole his light bulb concept and claimed he invented it. Edison never invented any thing in his entire life - he is just a greedy businessman.

Do you know that tesla owned the patent for mobile phones, wireless electricity which he intended to distribute free energy to all human race (but FBI hide the document till today) and various other inventions that would av benefited humanity immensely! Just google Nikola Tesla and you will be amazed!

kelitacliff: Ok.i'll be right back let me do a little research

Still waiting for ur findings.

ademega: All the same ,they can't be classify as fools like the billions in d world

Tru talk

nwaanambra1:

i always wonder why tesla is hardly recognized or mentioned despite all his genuine invention. In fact Thomas Edison stole his light bulb concept and claimed he invented it. Edison never invented any thing in his entire life - he is just a greedy businessman.

Do you know that tesla owned the patent for mobile phones, wireless electricity which he intended to distribute free energy to all human race (but FBI hide the document till today) and various other inventions that would av benefited humanity immensely! Just google Nikola Tesla and you will be amazed!

Bro u speak my mind

sekzy99:

Still waiting for ur findings.

Well i think einstein is beta rated than bill gates

kelitacliff: Well i think einstein is beta rated than bill gates

Yea bt dey got two different goals

I still don't accept the fact that Einstein was overrated, the media might not recognise Faraday but no genuine science student could ever forget him.



He who thinks Gates is the father of computer should be admitted to yaba left ASAP .




and why is no one mentioning Shakespeare?

Karleb: I still don't accept the fact that Einstein was overrated, the media might not recognise Faraday but no genuine science student could ever forget him.

I feel u

He who thinks Gates is the father of computer should be admitted to yaba left ASAP .

Lolz..... One of my students argued dis wit me


and why is no one mentioning Shakespeare?

Yea I tot of dat bt I need facts to back it up. Will chk for dat

Some of the great minds you mention here just rubbish this thread.

Some of the names you mentioned of whom credit were not given are great minds with all due respect, but they were all pace setter and most of them were involve in basic science. When it come to advance science mostly about the universe, scientist like einstein, hawkings are gods. Some of the predictions of einstein requires super computer to test them, some prediction still hold till date i.e gravitational lensing and others still require more advance computer to test them.
By the way do you know america is building the first quantum computer that will be able to disable any form of security base on prediction of some of the genuis you called overrated?

bro.. I agree with you in most of the names here but I'll have to disagree with you as regards to that of Leonardo da Vinci... if you've followed this guy well like I've done.. not just by reading brief history on him but books upon books and documentries , you'll understand well enough as not to include him here.. he had concentration problem but that can never write him off as a genius.. 2ndly about Einstein, I also think he shouldn't be on the list even if for any thing but that he broke laws of physics which were originally seen to be flawless....

Blakjewelry: Some of the great minds you mention here just rubbish this thread.

Lolz... Bro u dey vex ooo

Shouldn't GEJ be on the list

Blakjewelry: Some of the names you mentioned of whom credit were not given are great minds with all due respect, but they were all pace setter and most of them were involve in basic science. When it come to advance science mostly about the universe, scientist like einstein, hawkings are gods. Some of the predictions of einstein requires super computer to test them, some prediction still hold till date i.e gravitational lensing and others still require more advance computer to test them.
By the way do you know america is building the first quantum computer that will be able to disable any form of security base on prediction of some of the genuis you called overrated?

Broda, its ntin personal as I was specific in my post, same as urs

I was specific in my post as its nt all his work dat e deserve d rite

Bezed: bro.. I agree with you in most of the names here but I'll have to disagree with you as regards to that of Leonardo da Vinci... if you've followed this guy well like I've done.. not just by reading brief history on him but books upon books and documentries , you'll understand well enough as not to include him here.. he had concentration problem but that can never write him off as a genius.. 2ndly about Einstein, I also think he shouldn't be on the list even if for any thing but that he broke laws of physics which were originally seen to be flawless....

KillerBeauty: Shouldn't GEJ be on the list

Chai!!! Nairalander!!! We talk of genius u mentiond gej.... Word n opposite

sekzy99:

Chai!!! Nairalander!!! We talk of genius u mentiond gej.... Word n opposite

But the guy is over rated now.

KillerBeauty:

But the guy is over rated now.

Dat I dnt kwn bt wat I knw is dat es nt a genius

sekzy99:

Broda, its ntin personal as I was specific in my post, same as urs

I know. although I agree with you on the fact there a lot of scientists who were not given credit for their works but that's not to say most of them were cheated out of their work. Been that those who gave credit to them do so for a reason, and and another thing is two scientist can be working on the same thing independently and its the one with the most accurate one that Will be considered. were I disagree with you is calling them overrated, no scientist will claim that his work is not dependent on work of his predecessors, it is the ability to pull down great works and established one that stand the test of time that is what make one to be great.