Blackadder09 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I was wondering what peoples opinions were on this kid: http://www.indystar.com/article/20110320/LOCAL01/103200369 i know next to nothing in mathematics and physics so i have no gauge on how far along he actually is compared to his peers (university level) or how much potential he has, but he sounds impressive enough to a layperson. are people like him rare, or is this something (slightly) more common that the media is playing up? does being a prodigy really give the person a benefit over an entire career, or does it just put them at a headstart, before his catch up? also the reporter is a little grating, just bear with it lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 If the newspaper is writing about it, it's probably unusual. They don't generally report on mundane things as feature pieces (unless it's social phenomena, which they discover only after it's no longer novel). Prodigies tend to plateau by the time they hit 30. It's not so much that others catch up — it's not like they aren't smart anymore, but their new way of looking at things doesn't keep adapting (it's a new angle rather than a continual change in perspective), and there's a certain mental flexibility in approaching new problems that tends to fade as you get older. But he could end up being an exception to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marat Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 There is also an enormous media hunger and professional eagerness in the education business to find and display young students as prodigies even if they aren't. When I was 12, for example, I simply made a general algebraic representation of some math examples in our textbook, and when the teacher saw them, he wanted to know if I had done these myself. When I said "Yes," he asked if he could take them to show some people, and before I knew it I was being inspected by all sorts of educational experts as some sort of freakish 'Wunderkind.' I kept trying to explain that what I had done was simply dumb, and that all it amounted to was writing down 'a' whenever I saw '12' in the worked examples, and 'b' when I saw '4,' etc., but I couldn't make anyone listen since they were so primed to find something special. I should add that I have absolutely no natural talent for math and had to work really hard to get a good calculus grade, and I was no better at 12, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinker_jeff Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 The most important thing to this kid is his happiness in life. What if he got some huge problem to have a family? If I had a child like him, I would care much more about his feeling, safety, and motivation than his achievement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackadder09 Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 If the newspaper is writing about it, it's probably unusual. They don't generally report on mundane things as feature pieces (unless it's social phenomena, which they discover only after it's no longer novel). Prodigies tend to plateau by the time they hit 30. It's not so much that others catch up — it's not like they aren't smart anymore, but their new way of looking at things doesn't keep adapting (it's a new angle rather than a continual change in perspective), and there's a certain mental flexibility in approaching new problems that tends to fade as you get older. But he could end up being an exception to that. i do think the gap will eventually narrow though. this kids progression might be more linear where as others could be on a more exponential development path. he might still be above them at the end of the day but he won't be as far above them as he is now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gozonji Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Well, the only thing I saw drawn was a list of basic techniques of integration, a topic at the beginning of Calculus II. If he's still working on that, then that's not very far at all, it's not even into real math. But if he is able to actually make sense of the Schrödinger Equation (rather than just obsessing about it), then that's definitely a smart cookie there. It's way above what most people are capable of doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marat Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 A similar puzzle arises with respect to the training of English and American scientists. In England, children start specializing in science at a very young age -- if that is what they have decided they are interested in -- so at 17 they are miles ahead of their American counterparts in terms of what they know. This comes at the cost of a general education, which is greatly emphasized at the cost of early specialization in the United States educational system. But then, somehow, when English and American scientists have earned their Ph.D.s by 28, both groups are equally knowledgeable in their fields and just as intelligent at manipulating the concepts of their discipline. So precocious development doesn't seem to offer much of an advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrRocket Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I was wondering what peoples opinions were on this kid: http://www.indystar....CAL01/103200369 i know next to nothing in mathematics and physics so i have no gauge on how far along he actually is compared to his peers (university level) or how much potential he has, but he sounds impressive enough to a layperson. are people like him rare, or is this something (slightly) more common that the media is playing up? does being a prodigy really give the person a benefit over an entire career, or does it just put them at a headstart, before his catch up? also the reporter is a little grating, just bear with it lol. As a result of conversations elsewhere what I have seen and learned is: 1. The kid was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome which tends to result in some odd behavior. I have a nephew with Asperger's and he is also a bit odd, but not a prodigy. 2. He has made some statements about relativity that, though wrong, are getting some press. 3. He talked about integration by parts, coming from the product rule for differentiation, and got that right. That puts him ahead of most college freshmen, but does not make him a genius. 4. He has a pushy mother who seems to be behind the hoopla. 5. Time will tell if he ever produces anything original and startling. I am not holding my breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daecon Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 2. He has made some statements about relativity that, though wrong, are getting some press. Care to elaborate? I've not been following the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringJunky Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 A so called 'prodigy' is most likely just a precocious child who is doing some activity before their peers but their abilities usually plateau to the same level eventually. It could be damaging to their self-esteem when the admired precocious child does plateau short of public expectations and they lose all the attention. This 12 year old is probably being done a disservice by putting them on a public pedestal which, in the end, may not be justified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrRocket Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Care to elaborate? I've not been following the story. He was opining on difficultiy with relativity and stated that [math] F = m \frac {dv}{dt} [/math] which is not correct. In special relativity the correct relation is [math] F = \frac {d(\gamma m_0v)}{dt}[/math]. This makes me think he was simply reciting to the camera words that he did not understand. Yet he is being portrayed in some stories as the 12 year old genuis who is challenging Einstein's theory of relativity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marat Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Child prodigies almost always seem to wind up either being failures in life or just having a fairly high degree of success, but not being extraordinary. (John Stuart Mill is a notable exception.) True geniuses, like Einstein, seem to have moderately high normal functioning as children and then suddenly catch fire in their early 20s, becoming recognized as geniuses in their late 20s or early 30s. Norbert Wiener, the head of M.I.T., had an aptly titled autobiography, 'Former Prodigy." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmydasaint Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 One of my friends was a child prodigy who showed similar early talent to the young boy in the O.P. He was given a private school education by the British Government and then ended up in the Civil Service. However, in his late 40's now, he is not a fast-tracked civil servant but has a taken a totally different road. Speaking to the man, he has an incredible eye for details but has not had a happy or fulfilled social life. It seems that, sometimes, this type of intelligence comes with a price. John Stuart Mill was 'hot-housed' by his father in learning Greek and Latin by the age of 8 years old, and studying the Graeco-Roman classics in their original languages. However, he had a nervous breakdown in his twenties, IIRC. Having read his material on liberty and utilitarianism, he is a fascinating logician and philosopher. His work was pivotal in the delineation of what comprises true liberty and happiness for an individual - a superb treatise of the rights of an individual and society...but was it genius? On Liberty online book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ask123 Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 For me, geniuses are not simply born , they are to be built .And if u see most of the examples you will find out that guys like this have so much flatter just at the beginning that they are possibly not able to finish the race in which they seem to have an advantage right from the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samneil Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 The most important thing to this kid is his happiness in life. What if he got some huge problem to have a family? If I had a child like him, I would care much more about his feeling, safety, and motivation than his achievement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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