Talent vs Genius

When I was in high school our physics teacher gave us a challenge that involved making a paper air plane of any shape. The only objective was to get it to fly as far as possible. I had some paper air plane making skills so I made the best plane I could and it flew pretty far.

One guy made the greatest, yet simplest paper airplane of all time. He stood there at the starting line with a regular piece of paper. Some classmates scratched their head while silently chuckling to themselves. Moments later he took the flat piece of paper, crumpled it up, and threw it down the hall way. He beat the class with ease.

Some of the students got mad and said that he cheated. The physics teacher said, "How so? I said it could be any shape. A paper ball is indeed a shape." He won the contest with flying colors.

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."— Arthur Schopenhauer

I still regard this classmate as a genius.

from Quora