CHICAGO — In 1981, the MacArthur Foundation began awarding annual fellowships. These have consisted of monetary awards of $800,000 (an increase this year, bumped up from a decade ago and paid out in annual installments of $160,000 over five years) to do with whatever the awardees want. Most people, in the press and elsewhere, have dubbed these “genius grants,” a suitably catchy name. Many, perhaps those gripped by jealousy, have referred to the awardees as “having won the lottery,” a wildly incorrect comparison. These people, which this year number 25, are not merely lucky. They have worked ve…