first day of school, and i feel so unaccomplished.

[Q Classic]

so it's the first day of classes at the univ. of chicago (good luck, soul survivor!)...

i'm taking a quarter off...

and a half-japanese, half-korean wunderkind (we know the brains come from both, the savant bit from the japanese side, and the psychotic drive from the korean side), no more than 14, is starting school at the pritzker school of medicine.

good luck to sho yano, and i hate him. not really, but seeing a prodigy like that... makes me feel so... stupid.

[BeBMan]

Wunderkinds don´t have fun

[DaShi]

Bah! He's a freak. Don't worry about it.

[BeBMan]

I bet this kid never had the time to play Starcraft

[Verres]

You should've tried going to my 6th form....they are all like that. I am with only one other girl for A level Latin and she is an absolute genius (seriously). But I occasionally take comfort in the fact that she has no life and, despite her acedemic excellence, is incapable of conducting a sensible conversation.

[Kropotkin]

Yeah, my (albeit limitied) experience of 'geniuses' are that they often seems to have some serious problems or have had some sort of nervous breakdown. Ignorance is bliss.

[Verres]

If only nervous breakdowns automatically meant you were a genius

[duke o' york]

School is not just for an education in subjects you'll be examined in remember. You read about children taking exams under ten (exams aimed at 16 or 18 year olds) and wonder whether they would know what to do if their parents had a brainwave and took them to the park. Anyone who forces their child do fulfil some kind of dream of what they wished they had been is an awful parent. You may have wanted to play the piano when you were young and may regret the chance to have never done it, but to force your own child to learn when they clearly aren't enjoying it is just cruel. They may well grow up to be superstars, but they will also more than likely end up hating what you've done to them. And what parent would want that?

[MikeH]

My parents made me play piano and I hated it. Then independently I started playing guitar and love it. Some of that musical theory might have stuck in my brain as well... maybe. I just like making it make interesting noises.

[Cruddy]

I often wonder about prodigies. I mean, if you're doing hard graft studying in your teens, where do you get the social skills (bribery and corruption), hand eye coordination (hot wiring cars) and entertainment (sniffing glue/whizz etc).

Do prodigies always go on wild benders later in life to make up for all the fun things they've missed?

[duke o' york]

There was a story in the last couple of years about a 14 or 15 year old prodigy who was removed from Oxbridge after he "misread" some signals and almost assaulted a fellow student. Would things have been different for him (or indeed her) if he had had a "normal" childhood and known how to act in the kind of situations we might regard as everyday.

[Verres]

Originally posted by Cruddy
I often wonder about prodigies. I mean, if you're doing hard graft studying in your teens, where do you get the social skills (bribery and corruption), hand eye coordination (hot wiring cars) and entertainment (sniffing glue/whizz etc).

Do prodigies always go on wild benders later in life to make up for all the fun things they've missed?

Thank God I'm not a prodigy!

[Verres]

btw, just noticed the close resemblance between the word prodigy and the latin word 'prodigentia' meaning monsterous behaviour. I wonder if there is any connection

[Q Classic]

sure, i mean there are all sorts of reasons not to be a prodigy, i guess...

but it's hard to say them and not sound envious/sour grapes...

and it does nothing to make you not feel stupid. he's asian, to boot. i'm just glad most asian parent's aren't crazy enough to now start saying things like, "he made it into medical school at 14!!! why are you so lazy?"

[David Floyd]

I don't envy these people at all. They generally have no social skills at all, and don't have a lot of fun, at least in my experience.