The Bizarre Story of the Boy Who Lost His Genius

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3:36 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license via Wikimedia Commons
6:21 U.S. Navy Photo by Journalist 2nd Class Todd Stevens., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

[Newsthink]

*What factors do you think contribute to someone losing their innate talent?*

[andrewmutavi]

When people dictate an individual's future ends up draining the individuality out of a unique indivindual

[GamerEngineer]

It's still massively impressive that he became a professor at a young age its just the high expectations make it look underwhelming.

[rhyswong]

I have a cousin pretty distant one, at 6 years old he could memorise comic book drawings and could replicate it almost to the line. As a fan of art... I was amazed (I was like 12 or so) and I showed a sample to my art teacher and they wouldn't believe it was from a 6 year old child.

I tried to convince his parents to send him to art school, almost begging, because he love to draw so much and he is so happy with it. Perhaps I was not close to them as distant cousins so the idea didnt stick... but for certain their parents (Asian parents) did not believe that art would bring prosperous money. After the meeting, I only heard that their parents adamantly told the kid to study accounts and business. Now we are all grew up he became an accountant, I asked him about his art, he said its All Gone now, he still do art but its not the same one bit. What a waste! Truly

[isaaclim]

this story sounds similar to "the pity of zhong yong" (伤仲永) by Wang An Shi. Wang Anshi explains that even a gifted ability can wither without proper education. Natural talent should be appreciated, and nurtured as well. Even a child prodigy should be educated. Don’t neglect your natural aptitude and study well.

[Bash]

I'm surprised nobody considered this to be a possible blessing in disguise. The lives of many geniuses end in regret and tragedy. Cultivating that genius often comes at the cost of family and their love life.

[devinmes]

Intellectual gifts are much like targets. When the average person detects a genius, they tend to push all sorts of ideas onto them and pressure those geniuses into being their idea of genius.

So in other words, they become the target of people's expectations like no other. The weight of this can be incredibly unbearable, and often geniuses simply retreat into the shadows or become incredibly burnt out. Self-loathing comes after this, with the genius either growing to hate their gift, the people around them, or themselves for not living up to the expectations of others.

It's a sad thing to be a genius, and it's hardly enviable once you learn of the way that people treat them. Geniuses are little more than guinea pigs or superheroes to most people, attractions that make their day a little more interesting.

[romeymarshall]

What a crappy father. Couldn't make something of his own life so he exploited his own son and acted in his own self interest and his son's gift was wasted as a result.

[epenies]

It’s as simple as “you lose what you don’t use.” The brain is not trying to be as smart as possible, but just optimal and efficient enough for your daily demands.

[E-Kat]

This reminds me of the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was able to do complicated maths at a very young age and who said that this knowledge was being sent to him by Gods, to share with humanity.
But he didn't loose his talent, he grew it.
Unfortunately he had died at a very young age of 33 if I remember correctly, from TB.
Imagine if he carried on living till an old age, what could have he figured out?

[jameswilson]

He was so smart that he pretended to become stupid to get people to lower their expectations of him. Absolutely brilliant!!!!

[maskedmarvyl]

His father wasn't very bright. "Oh look, he has a gift for math! Instead of finding him a good school here to encourage it, I'll take him Out of school, abandon my wife and other children, and travel around the world having him perform like a monkey so I can profit!"
Great idea, genius.

[mikemondano]

Being good at arithmetic doesn't make anyone a "genius". It makes them a calculator. He was very smart, no doubt, but the genius expectation nearly ruined his life. Pretending to have lost his talent would have been the most genius-like thing he could have done.

[sammy_trix]

I don't think he lost his genius. He was a genius that went through so many circumstances that it is literally taxing to his mind, and when he had lost focus on mathematics and also not learning the new stuff about mathematics he went to a slow process. If he had been surrounded by other great geniuses and mathematicians, he might have grown up like Gauss.

Still being a Preacher, he's done a lot of great things, that is his destiny to impact in silent ways. He had shown all his greatness in math as a kid, and he had given all his last years for God and for His Glory.

[p.f.luxenberg]

The amount of genius unknown breaks my heart.

[chancerobinson]

I have a friend who was a prodigy on the violin. His parents controlled him until he became estranged, and the musical gift mysteriously disappeared. vote 5112

[technowey]

My youngest brother is autistic, i.e. ASD-1. When he was very little, you could give him any date, and he'd instantly tell you the day of the week that date was, and he'd be correct.

When he went to school, later he lost that ability. My mother thought he lost it after he was taught mathematics, although that might have been unrelated to the loss of that ability.

He always had an incredible memory. When he met someone, he'd often ask what their name was, what their birthday was, and what they did for work. Even if he didn't meet them again for years, when he met them again, once he knew their name, which he'd usually recall too, he'd instantly recall the other information about them.

[ebob]

He became a language professor. Hardly a failure.

[ronaldtaylor]

Geniuses often peak early and have burnout or fog later on life if the gift is not nurtured carefully or greatly

[delphinesimon]

Sometimes it's easier to remain anonymous and "like everyone else" in order to manage to live at least "like everyone else". Maybe that's just what he did: hiding what he was to stabilize his life.