The word “genius” is regularly used for absurdly talented artists and writers. Take Lin-Manuel Miranda, a composer, lyricist, director and actor best known for creating the musical Hamilton . Not only has he won a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, but he’s been called a genius in publications like Smithsonian Magazine , The Guardian and BuzzFeed .

Genius implies something solitary, and we often think of it as innate. Even so, Miranda wasn’t the best student when he was young; teachers weren’t swooning over his early promise. As Miranda told Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, the author of a new biography, Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist : “I was never the brightest student at Hunter College Elementary School, but I was good at making up songs, and I was g

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