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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

#451

Post by beachstartup »

pmoriarty wrote: post #399
beachstartup wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have friends like this. trust me, you're not going to convince him. he's probably going to just do nothing, for a long time, and tell you how lucky you are every time you visit.

I have two counter-examples for you. I had two friends like this. I convinced them to learn programming while they were working menial jobs. Both of them did, and went on to have successful careers in the tech field. I have a story of failure too. Two other frends expressed interest in learning to program, and I tried to teach them C while I was learning it myself. Big mistake. They quit after the first very intense…

OP was talking about repeated attempts to help the same person.

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

#452

Post by civilian »

chillwaves wrote: post #392
eutectic wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we should be willing to lie if it makes a better story?

I'm not sure how you got that idea from the post you are responding to.

I kind of understand how he got that. I do genuinely believe that hard work is the key to everything (although you do often need a little intelligence), but the way I talked was about what story would best help motivate people. It just helps that the two things match up.

I mean, imagine a world where I talked to my friend and was just like: "oh yeah. You're not smart enough. You never finished any bachelor degree. And I guess you could get into it anyway if you have been born into the upper class, but you weren't. There's no reason to try for anything better, you'll just fail." I'd be a pretty bad friend by modern standards.

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

#453

Post by civilian »

pmoriarty wrote: post #399
beachstartup wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have friends like this. trust me, you're not going to convince him. he's probably going to just do nothing, for a long time, and tell you how lucky you are every time you visit.

I have two counter-examples for you. I had two friends like this. I convinced them to learn programming while they were working menial jobs. Both of them did, and went on to have successful careers in the tech field. I have a story of failure too. Two other frends expressed interest in learning to program, and I tried to teach them C while I was learning it myself. Big mistake. They quit after the first very intense…

Awesome to hear! So are you like, 2 for 4 as a mentor? That's much better than my 1 for 5. I have another teaching-inclined buddy who is 0 for 10.

I have remained optimistic, but yeah.. I do my best just to casually mention it to everyone that it's possible to get into, and that I'm always available as a resource.

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

#454

Post by yolesaber »

Jimmy wrote: post #438
Bakary wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't ever know how people like that process the world but my guess is that they are attuned to the sheer horror of it in a way that most people can't conceive of, and aren't able to distract themselves from this with other pursuits. Following this taking their own lives becomes the only solution they can envision.

On the face of it, this is nonsensical, and highly offensive to people who are actually suffering. My first intuition is that no safe, warm, and dry college student could be "attuned to the sheer horror of the world" on the basis of their intelligence alone. On the other hand, you clearly have to be in a lot of pain if you're driven to kill yourself, and we shouldn't underestimate the degree of torture that one can i…

Yes, I think you are right. These were two very well-off people who basically had a meal ticket to success and accomplishment but chose a different path. I don't think it's because they were 'attuned' to suffering moreso than anyone (it doesn't take a genius to realize the world is a horrible, cruel place) but rather their immense mental faculties took up so much of their mind's resources that their well-being and emotional intellect suffered. At least, that's what it seemed to me but we will never know. Neither left a note.

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

#455

Post by squigs25 »

usmeteora wrote: post #436
squigs25 wrote: post #143

Interesting read, but I have one major qualm about this. There seems to be a confirmatory bias among the academic community that a measure of intellectual success can be found in the percentage of individuals who earn a PhD. Sure, it's true that you need to be reasonably smart to earn a PhD, but I think that someone can have a lot of intellectual success (potentially just as much or maybe more) if they don't earn a P…

Well, in the study, they tracked students that went onto become CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, billionaires, Senators, none of which require a Graduate Degree. In fact, most CEOs are Phd dropouts and decided to leave the graduate education system, and some of them dropped out of their Bachelors program even, Mark from FB is in there as well as Lady GaGa. They both have a large influence on society but neither have gr…

They tracked everyone, and measured success by the percentage that earned a PhD. So, while Mark and Lady GaGa were tracked, I don't think I saw any statistic that would have associated these two individuals with a positive outcome (except for the anecdotal line in the paper). I would argue that both Mark and Lady Gaga have probably had more influence than 99.9% of the tracked individuals in the study, and yet they are lowering the presented metric for success (percent that earned a PhD).

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

#456

Post by cperciva »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #372
Practicality wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"at least two people that are unquestionably in the top 0.01% of math ability." To whom are you referring to, if I may ask, and what do they do? (I would just like to learn about them)

cperciva and michaelochurch (not listed on /leaders because he hasn't posted in a while), and it's easy enough to look up what they do.

Don't forget lacker -- he won the Putnam twice (the year before me, and two years after me).

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

#457

Post by SamReidHughes »

cperciva wrote: post #456
SamReidHughes wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cperciva and michaelochurch (not listed on /leaders because he hasn't posted in a while), and it's easy enough to look up what they do.

Don't forget lacker -- he won the Putnam twice (the year before me, and two years after me).

I didn't! His karma's too low.

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

#458

Post by cperciva »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #457
cperciva wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget lacker -- he won the Putnam twice (the year before me, and two years after me).

I didn't! His karma's too low.

Ah, I didn't notice that you were filtering to the top 100 karma scores.

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

#459

Post by antisthenes »

exelius wrote: post #443
antisthenes wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hope you prove me wrong in the most spectacular way possible, because the current games are very stale and derivative. Star Citizen is the only thing on the horizon that shows promise, at least to my personal tastes. Best of luck in your endeavors.

Star Citizen isn't even revolutionary though; it's more or less a modern re-imagining of EVE Online. It'll likely devolve into spreadsheet hell just like EVE -- reality is boring, and most of the real world is tracked in spreadsheets. I do think there is some possibility for innovation in gaming with AR/VR, but I also agree we've probably reached the point of diminishing returns with what we can do with current contr…

It's funny you should mention EVE Online, because it's the only MMORPG I've ever played seriously and the only game I've played for longer than a year that kept my interest. It was also pretty revolutionary for 2003 when it came out.

The highest level of gameplay involved very little spreadsheet hell and a lot more skill, leadership and coordination that one might think originally if they did not have a strong corporation to align with. It's true that there a LOT of numbers behind the gameplay that you had to consider, but spreadsheet hell was a result of poor UI/UX choices and not necessarily of game design.

If Star Citizen can replicate that, but with better graphics, and personal ship control (instead of EVE's point and click) - they will already be a success in my book.

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

#460

Post by astrange »

Jimmy wrote: post #118
csallen wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask how old you are? And what you're trying to achieve?

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.

I hope you've read all of actionbutton.net.
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