Post (Comment?) on the Blue About History's Lost Artists (Creatives?)

April 12, 2023 1:31 PM

I have the textual equivalent of an earworm from a MetaFilter post (or comment) I'm hoping you can help me dispel.

I've been searching through my own favorites to no avail. What I remember is reading a front page post—or maybe it was just a comment—that prompted a discussion about how many artists (or maybe creatives?) have been lost to history since success is a matter of luck and social forces as much as any skill or talent, maybe even more so. Something to that effect, anyway. I'm fairly certain it was within the past year. "Lost Einsteins" about the Beatles has echoes of the sentiment, but the discussion was broader, not focused on one particular person or group.

Does this ring any bells for anybody?

posted by xenization to MetaFilter-Related at 1:31 PM (4 comments total)

This was on the Green, but could it be I remember reading a nice quote expressing the point that there are uncountable geniuses that don't get to contribute their potential to the world because of things like poverty, discrimination, etc?
posted by paduasoy at 1:45 PM on April 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops From _The Panda's Thumb_ by Stephen Jay Gould?
posted by Vatnesine at 6:12 PM on April 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

A similar post on the Green: "Why is 'genius' so unevenly distributed?"
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:12 PM on April 13, 2023

That must be it, though I was sure there had been a subsequent discussion (which was why I thought it was a post on the Blue). But that does explain why I couldn't find it it: I was restricting my searches to the wrong sub-site.

Thanks very much, everyone!
posted by xenization at 7:55 AM on April 18, 2023