Creative genius

The activity of the creative genius is a separate praxeological category from labor and leisure, according to Ludwig von Mises. He wrote in chapter 7, section 3 of Human Action, "The activities of these prodigious men cannot be fully subsumed under the praxeological concept of labor. They are not labor because they are for the genius not means, but ends in themselves. He lives in creating and inventing. For him there is not leisure, only intermissions of temporary sterility and frustration. His incentive is not the desire to bring about a result, but the act of producing it. The accomplishment gratifies him neither mediately nor immediately."[2] Mises also stressed, however, that the creative genius is quite rare and that a society cannot be based on the assumption that the masses will voluntarily engage in work for the type of motives that drive the creative genius.

The creative genius is sometimes impoverished, partly because, as Mises pointed out, "Thinkers, poets, and artists are sometimes unfit to accomplish any other work."[3] Unless he happens to have wealth from other sources, he may need to seek out rich patrons, work as a public official, or live on the sale of his creative work. It would be foolhardy to rely on the government to fund his work, because the boards assigned to dispense moneys for the advancement of the arts and science are as a rule composed of the elderly and established who are "even less competent than laymen to assist the rise of young talent with different views and perhaps greater mastery than their own."[4]