12-year-old boy genius accepted at Georgia Tech, has dreams of going to Mars

Re:12-year-old boy genius accepted at Georgia Tech, has drea... by onecommentman on Thursday December 03, 2020 @12:55AM (#25285884)

I wish they wouldn’t give this sort of media exposure to a 12 year old. I cannot see the upside to it. It’s not even a “role model” narrative, more of a “freak of nature” story. Not what a kid entering puberty needs. I knew a few folks like this in formal programs, and it was a crap shoot whether the attention was good or bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_of_Mathematically_Precoc...

I seem to remember they did a study of the JHU kids after 20 years or so, and the strongest conclusion they could come up with was the program didn’t obviously do any lasting damage. Having an acronym of SMPY, which led them to be called simpies, didn’t help.

I wish him the best, and I hope he has the sort of rootedness or grounding, maybe from family or faith, to complement his talents so he has a chance at happiness in life.

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Re:12-year-old boy genius accepted at Georgia Tech, has drea... by dekhn on Thursday December 03, 2020 @01:53PM (#25292874)

I generally agree (and I don't think such people typically go on to be superstars). But, I did work for one such person- Daphne Koller- who did the "early college" thing. She is every bit the genius.

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