There are many things I would like to be able to do, including painting, singing, ice-skating, and playing the piano (not all at the same time, you understand). Actually, I should probably have qualified the preceding sentence with the adverb “well,” because I already perform all four of these activities badly (some might say “excruciatingly” in the case of my singing).
As an aside, if you happen to visit Japan on business, don’t be surprised to find yourself performing Karaoke with your Japanese colleagues. If someone doesn’t sing very well, their friends kindly say they “sing with emotion.” It turns out that I sing with so much emotion I can quickly bring a room of grown men to tears. (On the bright side, I’m rarely asked to mount the stage more than once.)
Well, it seems that there’s hope for me yet. I was bouncing around the internet with gusto and abandon (if only I was as enthusiastic about physical exercise) when I saw something that said “Some people suddenly become accomplished artists or musicians with no previous interest or training. Is it possible innate genius lies dormant within everyone?”
As we read in the accompanying article — Brain Gain: A Person Can Instantly Blossom into a Savant—and No One Knows Why — there are different forms of savant syndrome. On its own, the term “savant” typically refers to a learned person, especially a distinguished scientist. By comparison, the term “savant syndrome,” which is synonymous with the rather unkind “idiot savant,” refers to someone who has a mental or learning disability, but who is extremely gifted in a particular way (e.g., art, music, memory, mathematics).
On occasion, I fear my dear old mother wanted to call me an “idiot savant” (like the time I tied the four corners of a bedsheet to my belt and jumped over the upstairs banister in an attempt to parachute to the ground floor), but she must have been short of time because she omitted the “savant” part.
Returning to the aforementioned article, “congenital savant syndrome” refers to someone whose extraordinary abilities manifest themselves in early childhood. By comparison, “acquired savant syndrome” refers to an ordinary person in whom astonishing new abilities appear following a head injury, stroke, or other event involving the central nervous system (CNS).

And then we have “sudden savant syndrome,” in which, as the article says: “[…] an ordinary person with no such prior interest or ability and no precipitating injury or other CNS incident has an unanticipated, spontaneous epiphanylike moment where the rules and intricacies of music, art or mathematics, for example, are experienced and revealed, producing almost instantaneous giftedness and ability in the affected area […]”
The article gives several examples, like a 28-year-old guy who saw a piano in a mall and suddenly discovered he could play like an expert pianist (prior to this, he had only been able to pick out simple tunes).
The article concludes by saying, “[…] the acquired savant particularly, and now the sudden savant, reinforce the idea that not only is the line between savant and genius a very narrow one but also underscores the possibility such savant abilities may be dormant, to one degree or another, in all of us.”
I must admit that I’ve long believed I have unexpected depths and unexplored talents. The trick will be to access these skills without having to do something extreme like administering a mallet to my noggin. How about you? If scientists discovered some way to activate previously unknown abilities, but they could only access one in each person, which one would you choose?
Is there an age limit to discovering one’s hidden genius? My wife and I took line dancing lessons some years ago, and I wondered whether I would unearth a remarkable innate ability. However, minutes into lesson #1, I stopped wondering. Is there still hope for me, or am I destined to live out an ordinary life?
There is always hope — I have faith in your line-dancing prowess — I know that one day you will claim the dance floor as your own — women will squeal with delight and men will gasp in astonishment — have faith, old friend, have faith…
I’ve already heard the gasps!
Congratulations — you’re half way there — now all you need to do is finish a dance with the splits to hear the squeals (I recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1635651786)
Looking at a menu of savant abilities, I would like to order a Savant Memory which would help in so many of life endeavors.
Whenever I attend a corporate birthday celebration with the singing of Happy Birthday, which is always off-key, I consider that I should take lessons to allow me to ONLY sing Happy Birthday on-key and perfect pitch. That would be a shocker to everyone who knows me.
I was going to mention another instance of a savant capability I desire, but I forget what I was going to say.
I hate that, then something is on the tip of your… that thing that wriggles around in your mouth…
“that thing that wriggles around in your mouth…”
you mean the lingual frenulum or the uvula?
I wouldn’t go anywhere without my lingual frenulum
I had some piano lessons when I was young, but with 5 thumbs on each hand and being ambidextrous (no use with either hand…) I didn’t get very far.
I recently came across this YouTube video of a guy called Claus Riepe playing Vangelis’s Conquest of Paradise on a large and versatile organ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAV0av2SHTg
I’d dearly love to be able to do something like that really well.
When I was at boarding school our music teacher and choirmaster used to play the pipe organ that the school had in the chapel. His party piece was Widor’s Toccata, which, if asked nicely, he would play at the end of term service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pe0j6n30P0
I used to greatly envy his ability to (seemingly effortlessly) conjure such beautiful sounds out of the instrument. But then, that’s always the trademark of a true craftsman.
I fear that, barring any scientific breakthroughs, I will just carry on dreaming…..
Those videos are AWESOME!!!
I’d have to say playing an instrument well. I’ve played several over my many years. But, not more than mediocre at best. I’d like something that I can do well for the next several decades if they would be so kind.
I’ll ask them to put you on the list — I have you down for the bagpipes
I would like to be a trivia savant and take on Ken Jennings on Jeopardy. I guess I would also have to be a buzzer savant…
Did you see the recent “Champion of Champions” contest — I cannot believe how much they know!
Actually I was surprised at the few at the few that they missed, since I knew the answers. It was the ones that they got, that I didn’t know.
I always feel so proud when I get one right — and frustrated when I know I know the answer, but I can’t remember it in time.
I could be an “idiot buzzer savant” (I’m versatile like that)
If we’re handing out talents, I’d like the ability to speak and understand other languages well.
I’m fluent in American with a passable understanding of British. I also have some passing knowledge of French Spanish and German but not enough to carry on a conversation.
Did you ever read “Space Cadet” by Robert Heinlein? Our hero learns to speak Venusian while he’s asleep. There was something similar in “Eon” by Greg Bear. I would love to do that — go to sleep and then wake up with the ability to speak Spanish, for example.
I remember that bit in Space Cadet now that you mention it. I’d love to have something like that.