Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

t3x.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 178 posts

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#121

Post by danieltillett »

throwaway942 wrote: post #48
narrator wrote: post #31

Warning! /r/iamverysmart post ahead! I normally wouldn't engage in this, as it's extremely poor manners and terribly arrogant, but it's on topic here and I think other potential /r/iamverysmart posters might benefit, so here goes: One of the problems of being intelligent is learning how to tolerate and accept boredom. I used to rebel against being bored and being ahead of the class. I would think: "this is all so eas…

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I do not mean this comment as a brag. Far from it. I am one of these people - I tested with an incredibly high IQ (nearly 200 at the time, though I know that fades). I graduated with a 4.2 GPA, and a 3.9 average (because on semester I chose to 'punish' my mother who was taking credit for my high grades, and got a D just to prove it) I have a very hard time with life in general. People b…

John von Neumann who I am sure you would agree was far smarter than you coped with dealing with the dum-dums around him. He was in general loved by everyone who knew him (from all backgrounds) and regarded as the life of the party. He appeared to work on being loved as a problem to get him the resources he needed to do what he wanted to do (he managed to convince the IAS to let him build a computer on campus after all).

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#122

Post by di4na »

_yosefk wrote: post #104
throwaway942 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure some people do that. That's business acumen, however, not my personal forte. Not many brilliant people ever become rich. To become rich takes not just cleverness or even genius, but the ability to convince others to invest in it and not simply fuck you over. For myself, I'm just not interested in inventions. I'm far more interested in math and geology, so I spend most of my free time just being amazed by the…

I didn't mean inventions, necessarily, just a high-paying job where you can retire early, certainly programming is like that today for a brilliant and even a somewhat less than brilliant person. I'd expect that if you loathe spending time on things you aren't inherently interested in, you might be willing to suffer through a few years of that to then never have to do it again. (This is how I thought about things at a…

Because none of the "highly intelligent" skills pays that well. This is sad but true.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#123

Post by withdavidli »

ap22213 wrote: post #36
itnAAnti wrote: post #18

I know of at least two other people from small towns whose IQ and life stories are similar to those shared in the article. I think high IQ individuals becoming isolated, social outcasts is more common in small towns, where accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs are more rare. If you know a highly gifted child, refer them to the Davidson Academy, a free public school for the profoundly gifted. http:/…

Got any resources for preschools? I've got a serious pending problem with my youngest. She's 18 months old and already on par with an average 4-5 year old (and even older in some ways). It's really freaking my wife and I out - we cannot keep up with her curiosity and motivation to learn - we just don't have time or resources. We're worried that by the time she starts school, she's going to be so far ahead that she wo…

Would look into Montessori school systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

It's a problem being so far ahead of your peers. Average people seem dumb, and that's because comparatively they are (relative word anyway).

> I just want her to be able to hang out with kids like herself and do what kids do.

These are two separate things. Kids like herself I think you mean kids her own age, but she's not like them. More accurately kids like herself would also be on par with people 2x+ her age.

Do what kids do... which means dumbing her down, or at least in her perspective what babies do. Imagine someone wanted you, an adult, to play and act like a 5 year old for years on end.

I'm not a parent, and don't ever plan on being one. I do not claim to understand your worries and struggles. Raising a child is challenging, the results from same actions can vary greatly. You have less to draw from since your experience is going to be greatly different from the norm. Maybe talk to your parents to see how they would have wanted things to be if resources wasn't an issue. Find online groups for this (and likely stay away from people that think they're child is the greatest).

Best of luck.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#124

Post by jpt4 »

throwaway942 wrote: post #60
_yosefk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: if you're so smart, why not make a few tens of millions, then fill your day with whatever suits you, instead of making enough to get by and contemplating suicide?

I'm sure some people do that. That's business acumen, however, not my personal forte. Not many brilliant people ever become rich. To become rich takes not just cleverness or even genius, but the ability to convince others to invest in it and not simply fuck you over. For myself, I'm just not interested in inventions. I'm far more interested in math and geology, so I spend most of my free time just being amazed by the…

Interested in mathematics and geology, so you say? Behold, I am the polypontian, and spin links 'twixt diverse nodes not my own:

http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2014/02/torusearth.html

Perhaps this Anders would be interested to discuss the particular brand of paint you enjoy watching dry [0].

[0] Which if one has any fascination at all with viscous fluids or amorphous solids, one really must try sometime.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#125

Post by andai »

derefr wrote: post #89
itnAAnti wrote: post #18

I know of at least two other people from small towns whose IQ and life stories are similar to those shared in the article. I think high IQ individuals becoming isolated, social outcasts is more common in small towns, where accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs are more rare. If you know a highly gifted child, refer them to the Davidson Academy, a free public school for the profoundly gifted. http:/…

> accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs I may be an edge case, but I was put in those programs and hated them. I had a high IQ but also untreated Attention-Deficit Disorder. The last thing I wanted to do was to "wrack my brain" on difficult questions that felt like they were above my level, with the people around me suddenly placing high expectations on my being able to solve those problems. Sure,…

Yeah they're usually more of the same but further along the timeline.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#126

Post by electronvolt »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #93
patcheudor wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've come upon the laziest conclusion possible. I was one of those smart 'lazy' kids & my poor performance in school wasn't in any way due to being lazy, rather it was due to not caring about school. By middle-school I'd figured out grades don't matter. My parents made too much for me to qualify for college scholarships and honestly, I didn't need scholarships anyway since money wasn't remotely an issue in…

So 'lazy' and 'not caring about school' are different? Sounds like rationalization, which middle-schoolers are very good at.

I'd argue that they pretty clearly are different, if you're talking about generic laziness-as-a-quality versus subject specific laziness.

Someone who isn't interested in school might be willing to work very hard at improving in a sport, or work very hard on their extracurricular club, or work very hard to teach themselves assembly and programming, or to learn a musical instrument. They might even be willing to work hard to teach themselves math, but be uninterested in putting effort into math class.

I guess it depends on if you consider "laziness" a universal character quality or not.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#127

Post by ecopoesis »

Inconel wrote: post #107
narrator wrote: post #31

Warning! /r/iamverysmart post ahead! I normally wouldn't engage in this, as it's extremely poor manners and terribly arrogant, but it's on topic here and I think other potential /r/iamverysmart posters might benefit, so here goes: One of the problems of being intelligent is learning how to tolerate and accept boredom. I used to rebel against being bored and being ahead of the class. I would think: "this is all so eas…

I'm curious how those like you who are extremely intelligent feel about teaching, specifically topics which are very rudimentary to you, and whether this bores you to death or provides you with any enjoyment or sense of fulfillment? I'm a decidedly not smart person, but through some good fortune I work with some extremely smart people. I work in aerospace as a technician and many of my coworkers are Engineering/CompS…

This just means you work with good people. Good people of all levels like to help and teach others. Altruism is a key part of a working society.

Unfortunately, being a genius has little to do with being a good person. Given the mad scientist archetype, there may even be a correlation between douchebag and genius.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#128

Post by jpt4 »

dsjoerg wrote: post #85

Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth has a lot of useful resources for parents and others wondering about the needs of smart kids and what can be done for them. http://cty.jhu.edu/ They helped us with my daughter.

Having attended five Summers worth of residential CTY programs, I attest and affirm that nothing - university, private organizations, or autodidactism - has yet exceeded the intensity of immersion in an environment of pure learning that I experienced there.

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#129

Post by jddjdbdbd3 »

cryptarch wrote: post #78
ryandrake wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that the teachers _dislike_ him, it's that they are frustrated that he is not following the curriculum and conforming to the lesson sequence and timeframe planned for. I found US public school education was not about learning and mastery. It's about conformity and obedience. Learning the subject matter is secondary--the key to succeeding at this institution is to do things in the expected way, at the expecte…

I think that at most public schools there are two separate paths of least resistance: * Do most of your homework and get acceptable grades. This is what most students do. * Don't do jack and be consistent. Many teachers will give up if you never do homework, and if you skip enough classes there won't be enough time to sit out all your due detention. It's also well possible that your school has a leaky detention admin…

I chose path b. Never did homework. I always forgot it. If you passively deflect enough, people will eventually just give up. Especially when you get good to excellent grades in the exams. The same worked at university. Dont go to lectures, dont do coursework or go to practicals. Get the past exam papers and learn to solve them over a month to two months before the exams. Solid 2.1, job done. Except I was utterly miserible through out that whole time. Lol. I could have been working in theoretical physics had my childhood not been a car wreck. Nope, doing web development, so dull :(

Re: Where Do the Failed 0.1% Go? (2015) [pdf]

#130

Post by stephftw »

throwaway942 wrote: post #48
narrator wrote: post #31

Warning! /r/iamverysmart post ahead! I normally wouldn't engage in this, as it's extremely poor manners and terribly arrogant, but it's on topic here and I think other potential /r/iamverysmart posters might benefit, so here goes: One of the problems of being intelligent is learning how to tolerate and accept boredom. I used to rebel against being bored and being ahead of the class. I would think: "this is all so eas…

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I do not mean this comment as a brag. Far from it. I am one of these people - I tested with an incredibly high IQ (nearly 200 at the time, though I know that fades). I graduated with a 4.2 GPA, and a 3.9 average (because on semester I chose to 'punish' my mother who was taking credit for my high grades, and got a D just to prove it) I have a very hard time with life in general. People b…

Have you considered undiagnised ADHD as a possible factor? Intelligent kids with the inattentive type can get overlooked because the only measures schools care about is not disrupting things and good grades.

I tried modadinil a couple times (it's very easy to get online) and realized my reaction to it was not like others told be about, there was no high or buzz, but I was suddenly very aware of the world around me and it was easy to funnel attention and interest exclusively into one thing at a time and the results of doing so was amazing. Adderall is even better to me, and somehow even socializing becomes more appealing and interesting after taking it. You'll still be smart as hell, but it's different. worth experimenting if you're stuck, assuming the risk of harm can be minimized sufficiently (ie, you don't have a heart condition or seizure disorder)

Post reply on HN