Einstein? Genius, but he was no neuroscientist.

I’m sure that, in your lifetime, you have heard that humans only use 10% of their brains, their intellectual capacity. Regarding this statement, I would also bet that you were told, or that you told someone else that “Einstein said” that. Right? My dear, misguided, well-meaning friend, today you can cross this particular misstep off of your list of missteps. You do have a list, right? If not, we’ll cover that later.

Although it’s certainly possible that Einstein was not the first or only person to comment on this, he is likely to be cited more than anyone else when it comes to stating that we only use a dainty 10% of our brains. He’s a great person to choose to back up any argument. After all, who wants to disagree with a genius? However, Einstein’s area of expertise was physics, not neuroscience. Not break dancing. Not pop music. Not loogie spitting. None of those. So what’s the deal?
You can transfer money, energy, and some diseases, but I think we’re quite a ways away from being able to transfer expertise. Don’t be fooled. If you start to observe it, you’ll notice how often this happens. People quote celebrities all the time in matters far removed from what made that celebrity famous. You want Anna Nicole Smith or Paris Hilton prescribing you medication? How about having MC Hammer telling you which candidate to vote for in the next election?
Likewise, Albert Einstein–although a great mind–was not skilled in the field of neuroscience, so why place all of your trust in a claim that was not even tested? At most, just think of the comment as an inspiring analogy of how the human mind is a vast sea of untapped potential. Beautiful, huh?
Sometimes I wonder if goofy Al was just playing a joke on us. “Sure, people consider me a genius,” he probably mused, “so I can say anything I damn well please, and people will swallow it up. Wicked phat!” Well, Mr. E, I’m not buying it!