The Shocking Truth About the World's Smartest Man, Who Died as an Unknown Clerk

The life of William James Sidis is a story of incredible genius, isolation, and tragedy. Widely recognized as the smartest person who ever lived, he was a child prodigy who spoke eight languages fluently by the age of eight and went to Harvard University at 11. With outstanding mathematical and linguistic abilities, he could have been one of the greatest minds in history, but instead, he died as a lowly office clerk. What happened to the world's smartest man, and why did he end up living a life of solitude and obscurity?

Want to learn interesting things every day? Want to gain deeper insights into the world around us? Interested in discovering hidden connections? You're in the right place! Welcome to the 'Did you know?' YouTube channel, where you can find fascinating and scientifically-backed content that will expand your mind with every video. Join our community now!

[robertholt]

Not deciding on a particular career can cause a gifted person to fail. If he had said, I'm going to be a doctor or I'm going to be a lawyer, or something else, and stuck with it, he would have been a success.

[NickTaru]

I don't think he was struggling through "the height of the cold war". He lived from 1898 to 1944. The cold war didn't even begin until after he died. That's not to say being a pacifist and a Communist would've made him Mr. Popular. Especially during the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

[richardward]

A lot of incredibly intelligent people are also autistic, it doesn’t help.