A Sting That Smarts

I've been seeing ads for a new show this fall called Scorpion. It seems to be about a team of geniuses who ... I'm not sure, solve crimes or something. Is brought back a pet peeve of mine about how movies and TV depict smart people.  After years at the University of Waterloo, and working in software, I've spent a lot of time around smart people, and the popular depictions of them aren't very realistic.

Among the standard fallacies:

• A person who is smart in one area will be smart in all areas.  If they can do math, they'll also be good at interpreting literature.
• Intelligence trumps knowledge and experience.  It's fine to show a smart kid beating a grandmaster at chess, because we can assume the child deduced centuries of accumulated knowledge of chess strategy on his own.
• Smart thinking is always quick.  Unique insights never require contemplation.
• Non-mathematical intelligence manifests itself as magic control over people.  A person gifted in psychology will have a svengali-like influence on others.
• Genius can come up with a solution regardless of the resources available. Any problems you see in the world are apparently just a result of lack of intelligence.

It's kind of weird because geek culture has unprecedented acceptance, and our economy depends on innovation more than ever. Smart people are a more important part of society than ever, yet pop-culture still struggles to understand intelligence itself.