Does the genius grant work as advertised?
Marc Scheffler has an interesting story in Crain’s Chicago Business arguing that the MacArthur Fellows Program — a.k.a., the genius grant — hasn’t worked as advertised in the case of writers: As part of a program widely known as genius grants, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation most years gives one or more ...
Marc Scheffler has an interesting story in Crain's Chicago Business arguing that the MacArthur Fellows Program -- a.k.a., the genius grant -- hasn't worked as advertised in the case of writers:
Marc Scheffler has an interesting story in Crain’s Chicago Business arguing that the MacArthur Fellows Program — a.k.a., the genius grant — hasn’t worked as advertised in the case of writers:
As part of a program widely known as genius grants, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation most years gives one or more authors $500,000, hoping financial freedom will help the writers produce their best work. An examination of the program, however, reveals that most of the 31 writers chosen since 1981 as MacArthur Fellows had already hit their artistic peak. That conclusion is supported by the 14 major awards — either a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award or PEN/Faulkner prize — and 37 minor awards the authors received before getting their MacArthur money. Surveying book reviews, author profiles and the opinions of literary scholars, Crain’s determined that 88% of the MacArthur recipients wrote their greatest works before being recognized by the Chicago-based foundation. The sheer number of books produced by the writers declined, too, after their MacArthur awards. It would reinforce romantic notions that great art requires personal sacrifice to suggest that, half-a-million dollars in hand, writers get lazy. But something else appears to account for the failure of the MacArthur program to fulfill its promise: Writers are mostly chosen too late in their careers, average age 48, and well after the literary establishment has recognized them for excellence.
One could argue that recognizing past achievement is hardly a bad thing — except that as Scheffler observes and MacArthur’s web site announces, that isn’t really the goal of the genius grant:
Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential. Indeed, the purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.
Of course, this begs the question — beyond great past performances, what are the available metrics that can be used to measure genius and/or creativity? Clearly, this is an assignment for Tyler Cowen. [UPDATE: Tyler posts hist thoughts on the matter here.] Oh, and I look forward to the free-for-all in the comments section regarding the “Crain’s determined that 88% of the MacArthur recipients wrote their greatest works before being recognized by the Chicago-based foundation” assertion.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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