You know that this is proof of? Nothing. What it amounts to is a guy that has a lot of knowledge but somehow has been keeping himself in a comfortable zone where he happens to like being. There might be other reasons for it and there might be a lot of other factors to consider when you think about why Austin Rogers is suddenly so popular. A winning streak on Jeopardy! is something unique considering all the different facts that a contestant would have to know in order to actually win the game. But does it make a person a celebrity? Not really. And yet this guy is getting calls from Hollywood reportedly in an effort to make him a star.
It doesn’t take much these days does it? Anyone that gets a small amount of attention or does something worthy of being noticed seems capable of being turned into an overnight sensation just by dint of standing out. That’s all well and good since some people might actually enjoy the attention and desire a chance in the spotlight, but then we start hearing other things about that person such as “he’s writing a novel that could make him the next Lin-Manuel Miranda”. Why in the world do people say this kind of thing? If he’s writing a novel that’s so great then calling him the next big thing should be good enough. If he’s actively trying to be like Miranda then automatically he’s not much of a genius for writing a book that clings to the style of another writer.
The hype that people give to those that stand out these days is a bit ridiculous mostly because if not for this once in a lifetime chance these folks would be just as anonymous as the rest of us and live out the rest of their days doing what they feel is right for them. Plus, people who are “writing a book” number in the thousands if not tens of thousands, and maybe a fraction of them ever get it written but will have dozens of excuses why it’s taking them so long to write a single novel.
He might have something in the works that’s great, he might be a very intelligent person. These are all things that are all well and good for him, but raising this man up to a level that he didn’t know about before could go either way. He could be a blue collar scholar that knows a lot but doesn’t aspire to much, or he could be an intelligent man that simply settled in life and didn’t feel like going any further with what he knew. Or he could just watch a lot of TV and study the internet religiously while collecting random facts and data that are essentially useless at any other time in his life.
A good example would be those of us that write these articles. Some of us might be highly intelligent folks, but until we research and learn the information we need for these pieces chances are we don’t know that much about certain subjects.
Let’s not go labeling people geniuses until we know for certain what’s going on.
Follow Us
