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Our Chess Champion Has a Home

nytimes.com

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Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#41

Post by renholder »

syntaxing wrote: post #19
netsharc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To join the other repliers crapping on you, what about the other homeless kids who aren't chess champions? A greater country wouldn't even have homeless kids, because they'd be taking care of them regardless of whether they have talent or not, because they're human beings, goddamnit.

This country spends a lot helping people, particularly kids in general. This might be NY state laws but we provide shelter, food, and subsidized utility for family with kids in poverty. I have friends who grew up in high risk area and poverty and they were provided with catered education and free college for upward mobility, Though to be honest I am not entirely sure what this family's situation was given the fact th…

>This might be NY state laws but we provide shelter, food, and subsidized utility for family with kids in poverty.

It seems that way. I have friends in the Bible Belt who receive nowhere near anything like that because those programs, simply, do not exist.

We could go into long diatribes of social policies versus the "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality but, at the end of the day, it only prolongs the problems that continue to plight the poor/disadvantaged; case in-point: The family that was homeless.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#42

Post by mindgam3 »

gowld wrote: post #36
mindgam3 wrote: post #27

What sucks is that this amazing story is being exploited by all kinds of people to get attention and further their own agenda, including some who should really know better. Two days ago we had Garry Kasparov adding his two cents in the Washington Post, including this choice paragraph: "This heart-warming tale is also a quintessentially American one. Despite his family’s conditions, Tani learned to play at a good ches…

Bobby Fischer started playing chess before age 16, and thanks to his mother, and by age 16 we was well established in the community. Blaming someone for his mental illness instead of acknowledging that illness is often the dark shadow genius, the other side of the same coin in the brain, is unreasonable and unfair.

“And by age 16 was well established in the community” Are you arguing that it’s totally cool to leave a kid on his own, as long as he’s “well established” in some community? That seems like a rather odd position on parenting. Not that I haven’t seen worse from chess parents.

“Blaming someone for his mental illness... is unreasonable and unfair”

First, I never mentioned mental illness. Second, I didn’t blame anyone. Merely pointed out that there are might be some environmental factors contributing to a bright kid ending up with with socialization + behavioral issues, like, you know, literally having to fend for himself by age 16.

But yeah, rather than see that kind of environment as traumatic in any way, we could totally just point to some imagined place in his brain as the real source of his troubles. Makes sense. /s

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#44

Post by moomin »

DFHippie wrote: post #13
moomin wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if he had a cold the day of the competition, came second, didn’t become the subject of a news article and remained homeless? The article itself points out this exact problem. We’ve replaced the American Dream with the American Lottery, where only the truly lucky get to change their circumstance. Otherwise, any study will tell you American has way lower levels of social mobility than Europe. If you want talent to…

typo: s/very/every/

Meh, sadly too late to correct.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#45

Post by uptownfunk »

The real tragedy, in all of this, is the feeling of compulsion that these economically disadvantaged kids face to use their intellect to improve their financial situation.

There was a kid in my statistical theory class who blew my mind with his raw brain power. Came from Nigeria, could have easily pursued a PhD from a top program. Perhaps gone on to do some great research.

Where did he end up..? An actuary. Why? The economic stability and progression in the profession.

For me this is the real tragedy.

I hope this kid gets to use his gift to do something more than afford an expensive bottle of wine some day.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#46

Post by crushcrashcrush »

tuesdayrain wrote: post #11
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. This is also the reason we can't pass meaningful taxes on the wealthy - including cap gains. Because everyone in the US believes they'll one day be a millionaire.

I don't find that to be true from my conversations about this topic. The people I've talked to are afraid of increasing taxes on the wealthy because they're afraid that the wealthy will just choose to relocate to another country, potentially even taking businesses with them.

Different circles! I think the line of thinking you've brought up is a method of control to never enact meaningful tax policy; but I understand the thinking.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#47

Post by hexane360 »

rayiner wrote: post #39
fcarraldo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what Western democracies are the right combinations of luck and talent not potentially life changing? The only uniquely American part of this story is that the boy was homeless in the first place.

He was homeless because his family came over as refugees. That’s uniquely American because, for the most part, the rest of the developed world hasn’t accepted refugees and economic migrants at the rates the US has taken them. (Very recently that’s changed in places like Sweden, but it’s already causing those countries to go into right-wing coniptions.) But this kid was in a homeless shelter. That’s how most countries…

>the rest of the developed world hasn’t accepted refugees and economic migrants at the rates the US has taken them

https://www.pewglobal.org/interactives/international-migrant...

The U.S. is ~14% foreign born, as of 2017. That's below Norway, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland (and that's just the first world countries). It's one percentage point above the U.K. Expanding beyond the first world, Jordan (with population 6 million and some of the highest water prices in the world) took in approx. 1.5 million Syrian refugees. In America, we took in 15479 in 2016, 3024 in 2017, and 11 in 2018. That's with a population of 327 million.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#48

Post by segmondy »

sandov wrote: post #31
m0zg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

... Or he will learn to code and become the next Dijkstra.

Or Amat Cama https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-car-hacked-at-pwn2own-co...

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#50

Post by Dangeranger »

Bodell wrote: post #35

I cant remember the exact years, but I won two state championships in Idaho somewhere between 12-14 years of age (so early 2000’s I think. I would love to find some correlating information about this, but it seems the online records don’t go back that far). I even tied a game with a master who was 30-40 years older than me in a rated tournament. From what I remember I was the only one younger than 25 in many tourname…

You are right.

One person's action to improve the life of another without any preconception of glamor is far greater than the fulfillment of donating to a heartwarming story, or hearing about a successful fundraiser.

Our (American) attention is too easily focused on the next shiny thing and we pat ourselves on the back for cheering a worthy cause, without consideration of those left out of the spotlight.

This story was amazing to witness, though not unexpected. We love to lift those who embody our virtues, without reflection as to where our backs are turned.

We could all do to learn from the lesson of Tani's family and "spread the wealth" that which we receive, or send, to those in need who do not fit such a story book narrative.

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