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A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

deseret.com

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Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#91

Post by TMWNN »

lkrubner wrote: post #2

This story is especially clear and dramatic (and well documented) but I've often thought this happens in every generation: the people who lead (businesses and nations) when they are in their 40s and 50s are often people who boldly go out and discover the world while they are in their teens and 20s, and so they take on a bit more risk than the average citizen, and this includes physical risk (whether in travel or info…

>(One of my favorite anecdotes on this subject: One of the best entrepreneurs I know went down to Mexico and hitchhiked all over when she was 18 years old. And every family that picked her up told her that what she was doing was very dangerous and that she was very lucky to be picked up by that family, instead of someone more dangerous. But at the time she was very innocent. 20 years later I ran into her and I was like "You know what you did was crazy?" and she was like "Now that I think about it, I'm amazed that I survived.")

Another example: From the use of "BRIC"/"BRICS" one might think that those nations would be similar in some way.

I have heard of at least two young Western women who in recent years hitchhiked across China, documenting their experience along the way. One could never, ever imagine doing that in the other BRICS countries (with prewar Russia being the safest of the four, but still pretty risky).

Nations matter. Cultures matter.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#92

Post by Master_Odin »

barry-cotter wrote: post #86
ceres wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they end up an unremarkable partner at a law firm or something, not POTUS or Bezos or Musk This doesn’t make much sense because people inherit their parents’ wealth and businesses all the time. People also inherit their country’s political leadership e.g. political families and monarchs. To suggest that it requires a special breed of people to get these positions without proof is rather silly

This logic would work if competition didn’t exist and no one ever made huge unforced errors. In the world as is Buffet, Gates, Bezos and Musk are among the richest people ever. Their parents were wealthy but nothing remotely comparable. The Carnegies and Rockefeller families are still rich but even if you add all of them together they’re not a shadow the importance the founders of the fortunes had. Political dynastie…

Within this comparison, will the various children of Musk or Gates or Buffet be as memoriable as their parents, or will they end up like the Kennedys, where yeah they exist and probably have a bunch of money, but they're "not important".

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#93

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #34
klyrs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a peculiar word to use. And, I actually disagree in this specific case. This kid is a statistical outlier to a degree I'm unwilling to even guess at. It's the kids around and below average who are hurt the most by a lack of structured education.

I think requiring standardized tests of homeschooled kids is a pretty good compromise… The standardized tests are ridiculously easy to ace if you're smart, and they'd catch kids who aren't learning reading or basic arithmetic

I've heard there's evidence that delaying literacy and numeracy has meaningful and potentially desirable effects on brain development. If a child and parents want to test that out, why not allow them to do so?

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#94

Post by dragonwriter »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #76
Firmwarrior wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think requiring standardized tests of homeschooled kids is a pretty good compromise… The standardized tests are ridiculously easy to ace if you're smart, and they'd catch kids who aren't learning reading or basic arithmetic

They just got rid of some of these tests in CA public schools…

AFAICT, the closest thing to this that actually happened was adopting a shorter version of certain tests starting this past Spring.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#95

Post by peteforde »

9935c101ab17a66 wrote: post #85
peteforde wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's weird to me is that somebody would have such a hard time accepting verifiable facts about a gifted outlier who happens to be remarkably young but also reads Hacker News on a Sunday night, presumably because they see themselves as someone who is involved in the tech/startup economy. The whole reason that there's a story here is because it's exceptional. If he hadn't been an outlier, there would be no story. The…

> What's weird to me is that somebody would have such a hard time accepting verifiable facts about a gifted outlier who happens to be remarkably young Where are the verifiable facts? Where are the citations? You may see the story as just a list of 'verifiable facts,' but that's absolutely not what it is. I'm not saying I think the whole thing is made up, but it isn't simply a collection of attestations that any indiv…

I consider this rebuttal to be exceptionally well-argued, and I thank you for it. You do raise several excellent points, and I have no interest in being a shill for the LDS church.

And yes, Bari Weiss should be considered a red flag. My bad for letting her name slide past without a sniff test.

I stand by my point that we shouldn't be so damn skeptical that there are exceptional young people, because I've known them personally and arguably flown in the same formations. (I'm no prodigy, but I was encouraged into tech and business very early. Timing and privilege factor in, too.)

That said, I concede to your assertion that it's unacceptable for me to declare the statements in this piece to be "verifiable facts" at this time.

As penance, I offer this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ntp6BqhSng

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#96

Post by cauthon »

crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #93
Firmwarrior wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think requiring standardized tests of homeschooled kids is a pretty good compromise… The standardized tests are ridiculously easy to ace if you're smart, and they'd catch kids who aren't learning reading or basic arithmetic

I've heard there's evidence that delaying literacy and numeracy has meaningful and potentially desirable effects on brain development. If a child and parents want to test that out, why not allow them to do so?

Children cannot provide informed consent, for one

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#97

Post by mos_basik »

klyrs wrote: post #19
xani_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor kid, the family are basically gimping his start in life by a decade... it's outright abuse

What a peculiar word to use. And, I actually disagree in this specific case. This kid is a statistical outlier to a degree I'm unwilling to even guess at. It's the kids around and below average who are hurt the most by a lack of structured education.

I believe @xani_ is saying "poor kid" about the child(ren) in your family, not about the child in the article.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#98

Post by LastTrain »

lucb1e wrote: post #87
yaomtc wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of clouds was relevant. The next few words you left out: > promising no rain as it has for nearly a year The area was experiencing a drought. > And then, after 14 months without rain, the well that supplied their house went dry. For nine months the Coopers hauled water by the barrel for their household needs.

Sounds like those words could have stood on its own without the fluff about what the present weather is like at the time of writing.

It’s a human interest story not a shipping manifest.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#99

Post by aerovistae »

Okay so, I have to say, at first this was a pretty feel-bad story for me.

I then noticed a tidbit of information in another article about it that somehow made me feel different: Cole Summers didn't know how to swim. He was out on the water in a kayak, with no life jacket, with only an autistic child for company - and didn't know how to swim.

Somehow it stopped feeling like a tragic accident and more like carelessness and stupidity, and I just didn't feel as bad. I'm sorry it happened, and my heart goes out to his family, but this was avoidable.

Somehow among all the crazy stuff he learned and accomplished at such a young age, basic common sense seems to have been dodged.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#100

Post by soared »

effingwewt wrote: post #79
paulcole wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My brother was stealing property (boats, go-karts, ATVs) and selling it to (mostly) legitimate businesses (run by adults) by the time he was 12. By the time he was 15ish he had a landscaping business with residential and commercial customers. Things are different when it’s real rural. Sure you can’t get a bank loan without an adult involved, but cash is cash. And if you need something for your business and a kid brin…

Yea, we grew up pretty rural and we sold rabbits, goats, even horses as kids. We also traded them for equipment like ATVs, guns, or whatever we needed. OP has never left the city and so just assumes his life is all life. Even his statement 'do we ' just assumes we all believe as he does. Cole also probably did what many young business owners do and put it in his parent's names. Much of this is common place for countr…

He sold rabbits to restaurants located in California, which excludes the local rural-only argument.
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