Genius is too elusive and too subjective to be easily identified. It requires too many traits to be simplified.

Lewis Terman, who helped pioneer the IQ test, tracked over 1,500 Californian schoolkids with IQs above 140, which is the near-genius or genius mark.

Creativity is a part of genius that can't really be measured, but that can be explained to a certain extent. One sign of creativity is being able to make connections between seemingly different concepts.

Natural gifts and a nurturing environment can still fail to produce a genius, without motivation and determination to press one forward.

It relies on the dynamic interplay of neural networks that work together.

Social and cultural influences can provide that nourishment, creating a cluster of genius at moments and places in history, like Kolkata during the Bengal Renaissance, or Silicon Valley today.

Geniuses are rare, numbering roughly one in a million. Genetic potential alone does not predict actual accomplishments.