Ramblings on the Nature of True Genius

I just read an interesting article on Slate about how Barack Obama should surround himself with geniuses. Jacob Weisberg observes that while George W. Bush tended to politicize all policymaking due to his inability to quash his feelings of intellectual inferiority, Obama seems to suffer from no such deficiencies. He writes:

But it makes sense for Obama to give greater weight to intellectual acumen and subject-specific knowledge than his recent predecessors have, both because of the depth of the problems he faces and because of his own style as a thinker and a decision-maker...He is intellectually confident, enjoys engaging with ideas, and inclines to pragmatism rather than partisanship.

I've noticed that intellectually confident people with advanced social skills seem to be more successful in achieving their goals and some degree of happiness than their socially handicapped wunderkind brethren. As I reflect on the ways in which I would like to raise my children, I've come to the realization that their education should include not only a practical facility for algebra, but a more comprehensive understanding of the "calculus" of human interaction. The more we rely on machines to go about our humdrum lives, it becomes more important to keep people at the center of everything we do. Otherwise, whatever do we do things for?