well, im certainly the greatest thinker of my day....and im wonderfully modest, but dare i say....of all time? yes, i do.
Idk who exactly would be the most genius person of all time, but I think Albert Hoffman was one of the most influential/important people in history, and most definitely a top figure of the 20th century.
This is a pretty loaded question, IMO. The contributions of all the greats we've come to appreciate are enormous ones in our understanding of nature. Still, if we were to compare raw achievements alone, Newton easily wins hands down. But there are a lot of close seconds: Gauss, Euler, Lagrange, Hamilton, Maxwell, Einstein, Schrodinger, Dirac, Heisenberg, and Feynmann are definitely worthy of a top 10 geniuses of all time lists.
For me? Abbie Hoffman(social science, psychologist) I think everything he was doing was just perfect!
IMO, einstein doesnt deserve the fame he has today. He was infamous for plagiarism, vomiting absolute horseshit -stepping out of his element and making absurd claims, like his notorious honeybee statement. I mean, sure, he wasnt a moron, but he was an egomaniacal dipshit. I literally think the only reason he got famous IRL was because he had crazy-ass hair, and unpredictable behavior, as well as a penchant for chasing after pussy.
It should be noted that Einstein never actually said that oft-quoted honeybee quote. Also the fact that he said things that turned out to be wrong shouldn't diminish his serious and legitimate accomplishments. I know it's only your opinion, but your last sentence can't be serious.
I really cant hold one person above another, as im sure there are many people who just didnt develop in times/places conductive to their intellectual development. Though im going to have to be biased and say Terrence Mckenna, due to being such an well spoken, and outspoken individual on topics and experiences which were both highly subjective and highly controversial (psychedelics). He may not have made any major breakthrough discoveries, but he pointed out some of the simple things that get passed over. Such as the ever increasing complexity of our universe. Now instead of thinking of entropy as a measure of a systems chaos/disorder, it is redefined in my mind as a measure of a systems complexity. Terrence also did a very good job of demystifying the psychedelic experience (as far as second hand experience goes), as well as denouncing reductionism and advocating the importance of individual experience. "The mushroom said to me once; for one human being to seek enlightenment from another, is like one grain of sand seeking enlightenment from another grain of sand " - Terence Mckenna
Yeah, he kind of umm... came up with relativity and invented tons of modern concepts in cosmology and astrology. There are obvious reasons he is still famous. Getting down on him as if he wasn't a real scientist is like saying that Newton shouldn't be famous.