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He is, from what I have read, a man of big ideas and startling insight. Lehrer is (or was) a widely sought after speaker with a highly coveted job writing for The New Yorker. His first book was published at 26, and than another one two years later, followed by "Imagine," a bestseller, which was published this year. Is Jonah Lehrer a genius? A prodigy? He is only 31. We want or need geniuses to show us the power and potential of the human mind and we’re so eager to find new people to bestow this title upon that the term and the concept have become quite diluted. In a December 2002 article in The Atlantic Monthly, Marjorie Garber writes, “At this point in history genius has become a commodity, an ambition, and even a lifestyle.” She also notes that, “Deep within us lies a certain strain of longing for genius, a genius worship, that might be described as messianic: the hope that a genius will come along to save us from our technological, philosophical, spiritual, or aesthetic impasse.” When young people display remarkable intelligence or creativity, we are instantly enamored. There is a cult of bright young things, a cultural obsession with genius, a need to find beacons of greatness in an ordinary world. There are, after all, worse things than a writer recycling content he has written. How could a man with a mind like his self-plagiarize? Was he self-destructive? Was he succumbing to the pressure? Pundits came up with any number of answers to try and make sense of what was, at the time, a misstep - but certainly one from which a good journalist can recover. He was so bright, so talented, so creative. Lehrer’s self-plagiarism sparked a heated conversation. He took his lumps but kept his position as a staff writer for The New Yorker as the magazine assured readers the mistake would never happen again. Lehrer apologized, saying it wouldn’t happen again. Others, including Jacob Silverman and Ed Champion, uncovered more instances of self-plagiarism.
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In June 2012, Jim Romenesko noticed that Jonah Lehrer’s Frontal Cortex post had repeated content he had written for The Wall Street Journal in October 2011.