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Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#301

Post by seizethecheese »

balabaster wrote: post #293
pmoriarty wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Godlike genius.. Godlike nothing! Sticking to it is the genius! I've failed my way to success." -- Thomas Edison "Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lives solely in my tenacity." -- Louis Pasteur "Men give me credit for genius; but all the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject on hand I study it profoundly." -- Alexander Hamilton

I can't believe that it's coincidence that every person I've ever come across that has been proclaimed a genius at whatever has had this very same sentiment to express. There was a grain of talent and a moment of inspiration that led to a dogged pursuit of their interest. People are quick to write it off as "oh, they had talent" or "oh they were a genius", but I'm reasonably confident given the number of amazing peop…

Perhaps true geniuses know the social value of humility.

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#302

Post by balabaster »

seizethecheese wrote: post #301
balabaster wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe that it's coincidence that every person I've ever come across that has been proclaimed a genius at whatever has had this very same sentiment to express. There was a grain of talent and a moment of inspiration that led to a dogged pursuit of their interest. People are quick to write it off as "oh, they had talent" or "oh they were a genius", but I'm reasonably confident given the number of amazing peop…

Perhaps true geniuses know the social value of humility.

...or perhaps they're totally unaware of the existence of genius. Perhaps if they realized what they were attempting required genius they'd never have attempted it in the first place for fear that they didn't have the genius necessary to succeed.

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#303

Post by mod »

truth_sentinell wrote: post #268
mod wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that we don't fully understand intelligence does not negate the idea that intelligence would be genetically influenced in a similar manner to observable physical traits. I wholeheartedly disagree with your opening statement, the two are not very different in all likelihood.

It could be as it couldn't. Both our opinions are on the same level because we're fact-less. In most sports, we have clear rules about who is better at it. Let's say long jump. It's clear that a person with larger limbs (genetics) will have an advantage above one that has shorter limbs. How do we translate this in cognitive ability? A person is more intelligent than other because they passed a test? because they can…

In this comment, you're just calling into question the definition of intelligence.

We have widely-accepted manners in which to gauge intelligence. If you dispute them, that's another matter.

It's well-established that the measures show a genetic correlation.

If you were to find another measure of intelligence, besides the standard ones, we can use our experience and facts to surmise with a high confidence that those, too, would prove to be influenced by genetics.

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#305

Post by saint_fiasco »

WalterBright wrote: post #278
saint_fiasco wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calculus textbooks are difficult but rewarding. A 10 year old child who can enjoy them must have some gift that makes it easier for them to understand the difficult parts quickly and get straight to the rewarding part.

Calculus has a myth built up around it on how hard it is. A kindly professor once showed me how it worked in about a half hour, and I was like "is that all"? Of course that wasn't all, but that bit of help served me very well for years of more advanced math.

I tried to learn calculus a couple of times but always get stuck on integrals. I'm pretty sure when I was 10 I would also have gotten stuck there.

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#307

Post by paulpauper »

shostack wrote: post #282
paulpauper wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you need to invest in index funds (ideally the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100), high-IQ companies - specifically Google Amazon and Facebook- or use the inverse ETF decay strategy that makes 20-40 percent a year. Buying in-the-money call options using 3-1 leverage on Google, Amazon, and Facebook has returned 200% since 2013 vs. 30% for S&P 500. The motivation behind this strategy is that average-IQ people can make g…

I was with you until the individual stock purchase and leverage bit. For most people this is NOT a wise strategy as they have neither the investing experience nor savings to gamble like that.

The backtest of the strategy I developed risks $10k to make $100k since 2013. It attains maximum drawdown if all three stocks (AMZN FB GOOG ) fall 30% because 3-1 leverage is used. But since it's an option strategy, you don't risk more than the $10k invested. Yeah there is risk, but GOOG AMZN and FB have a combined market cap of about 1 trillion. It could be modified to be more diverse but returns are less. The sharpe ratio fr the strategy (which is a way of quantifying risk vs. returns) is 2 vs .80 for the S&P 500 in that period.

This strategy could be a good way for someone with a small amount of money to make quick returns and then later move to a more conservative strategy.

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#308

Post by betenoire »

saint_fiasco wrote: post #56
betenoire wrote: post #8

But are they happy?

Apparently yes. Some people are just more privileged than others. Insisting that rich people must feel more existential dread than poor people (money can't buy happiness!) and smart people must be more sad than stupid people (ignorance is bliss!) is a classic symptom of just-world fallacy.

Good point. Assuming that was what I was saying is another type of fallacy.

I understand why you'd want to have intelligent kids. All else equal, it is clearly an advantage in some respects.

But personally, I see no correlation between happiness and intelligence (even inversely as you suggest). I just find it peculiar that this collectively interests us. I spend a lot of time as a parent trying to teach my children that personal happiness is independent of what other people tell you about yourself. And here we are telling children how great they are.

I dunno, life is weird :)

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#309

Post by someone7x »

soared wrote: post #169
Jimmy wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 24. My goal is to be one of the most influential video game designers of this century. I may not be considered the absolute greatest (rankings like that are very fickle anyway, and never universally agreed upon, even in the sciences). But I do want my works to be considered necessary for any future survey of the major works of this period.

Well... you talk about video games as if they are a high art. You might be in for more than one wake up call in the near future.

Reminds of this experiment in a subway station where they put a world class violinist with a stradivarius to play some of the most highly regarded violin music. The only person that stopped for this high art performance was one that recognized the musician.

The point being that high art can be right in front of us and we may miss it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-bef...

Re: Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

#310

Post by betenoire »

sokoloff wrote: post #279
betenoire wrote: post #8

But are they happy?

I'm in the study and the long-term tracking surveys they send us periodically have many questions designed to ferret out different aspects and indicators of happiness and success in different dimensions of life. I can't imagine how I could be much happier in life. I have a great, healthy family, great career in a field that allows me to use my brain to create tons of business value for my company, take home an approp…

Thanks for the comment. I have a sincere question for you, if you didn't have a great healthy family, and you had a shitty career or whatever, would you still be happy?
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