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I know of at least two other people from small towns whose IQ and life stories are similar to those shared in the article. I think high IQ individuals becoming

I know of at least two other people from small towns whose IQ and life stories are similar to those shared in the article. I think high IQ individuals becoming isolated, social outcasts is more common in small towns, where accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs are more rare. If you know a highly gifted child, refer them to the Davidson Academy, a free public school for the profoundly gifted. http://www.davidsonacademy.unr.edu http://www.davidsonacademy.unr.edu The Davidson academy is free to attend, and they can coordinate providing IQ-appropriate curriculum and work to the child's school for students who cannot attend in-person. Finally, there are paid, online options as well. A friend of mine works at Davidson, and they have elementary age kids taking physics classes alongside master's degree students. When they say "profoundly gifted", it's not hyperbole. Getting gifted kids into programs where they are surrounded by people like them can go a long ways towards helping them learn social skills. They may never be socially normal in larger society, but they can find friends, meaning, and happiness that can lead to a productive and brilliant career and life.

leeoniya 10y ago
> online options as well. fairly certain this is the opposite of what they need
- brianwawok 10y ago
  You should sit a genius 10 year old with no social skills in a class of 20 somethings? That seems not a path to success.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    It's not the age of their counterparts, but the social structure you can build for them. It's probably better to have a kid like that with others that can understand where they're coming from than a bunch of ten year olds with no clue.
ap22213 10y ago
Got any resources for preschools? I've got a serious pending problem with my youngest. She's 18 months old and already on par with an average 4-5 year old (and even older in some ways). It's really freaking my wife and I out - we cannot keep up with her curiosity and motivation to learn - we just don't have time or resources. We're worried that by the time she starts school, she's going to be so far ahead that she won't be able to relate to the other kids. She already has issues with other 18-24 month olds - she call's them babies and treats them like so. No idea what to do. I just want her to be able to hang out with kids like herself and do what kids do. I'm not interested in turning her into a super-genius or putting pressure or her or training her or any of that. I'd rather her just be free and follow her mind for as long as possible.
- ap22213 10y ago
  By the way, although my wife and I are fairly intelligent, neither of us are as intelligent as our parents. For instance, my father apparently taught himself to read and write at around 2 and started to teach himself logic and algebra soon after. At 3, he wrote a math / philosophy paper detailing a complex cosmology and metaphysics in which he used logical arguments to disprove God. He never did much with his life - got into a lot of trouble as an adolescent and eventually settled down as a laborer. For the past 20 years he's been a recluse and sits in his studio apartment playing FPS games all day. It's an issue of resources. As a kid, he also lived on a large rural farm, so he had no resources to do anything else. Many of my other family members are intelligent too, but they all grew up poor and ended up being poor later in life. It makes me sad.
  - clairity 10y ago
    this tells me that knowing you're smart can be more of a problem than being smart with no outlet, which fits nicely into my anecdata-backed perceptions. =) e.g., i've known smart people who have gone on to have ordinary lives and it doesn't seem to have lessened their quality of life. sure, society at large didn't get as much benefit, but individual flameouts are probably one of the reasons we don't fully optimize for maximum societal contribution. i've also known smart people for whom knowledge of their high intelligence has not only been a burden but a hindrance to their personal success and fulfillment. the global optimum is probably not made of a bunch of local optima methinks.
derefr 10y ago
> accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs I may be an edge case, but I was put in those programs and hated them. I had a high IQ but also untreated Attention-Deficit Disorder. The last thing I wanted to do was to "wrack my brain" on difficult questions that felt like they were above my level, with the people around me suddenly placing high expectations on my being able to solve those problems. Sure, I probably could have solved those problems, but instead I just locked up. Now, give me creative freedom to pursue my own difficult questions with nobody evaluating my progress—and some good role-models with domain-experience who I could ask questions—and I would have been happy as a clam. But that is not what "gifted programs" tend to look like.
- andai 10y ago
  Yeah they're usually more of the same but further along the timeline.
- tejasmanohar 10y ago
  I was in a similar boat. Being "accelerated" in subjects you're not passionate about when you have other unaddressed interests is a recipe for disaster.

leeoniya 10y ago

> online options as well. fairly certain this is the opposite of what they need

brianwawok 10y ago
You should sit a genius 10 year old with no social skills in a class of 20 somethings? That seems not a path to success.
- astrodust 10y ago
  It's not the age of their counterparts, but the social structure you can build for them. It's probably better to have a kid like that with others that can understand where they're coming from than a bunch of ten year olds with no clue.

ap22213 10y ago

Got any resources for preschools? I've got a serious pending problem with my youngest. She's 18 months old and already on par with an average 4-5 year old (and even older in some ways). It's really freaking my wife and I out - we cannot keep up with her curiosity and motivation to learn - we just don't have time or resources. We're worried that by the time she starts school, she's going to be so far ahead that she won't be able to relate to the other kids. She already has issues with other 18-24 month olds - she call's them babies and treats them like so. No idea what to do. I just want her to be able to hang out with kids like herself and do what kids do. I'm not interested in turning her into a super-genius or putting pressure or her or training her or any of that. I'd rather her just be free and follow her mind for as long as possible.

ap22213 10y ago
By the way, although my wife and I are fairly intelligent, neither of us are as intelligent as our parents. For instance, my father apparently taught himself to read and write at around 2 and started to teach himself logic and algebra soon after. At 3, he wrote a math / philosophy paper detailing a complex cosmology and metaphysics in which he used logical arguments to disprove God. He never did much with his life - got into a lot of trouble as an adolescent and eventually settled down as a laborer. For the past 20 years he's been a recluse and sits in his studio apartment playing FPS games all day. It's an issue of resources. As a kid, he also lived on a large rural farm, so he had no resources to do anything else. Many of my other family members are intelligent too, but they all grew up poor and ended up being poor later in life. It makes me sad.
- clairity 10y ago
  this tells me that knowing you're smart can be more of a problem than being smart with no outlet, which fits nicely into my anecdata-backed perceptions. =) e.g., i've known smart people who have gone on to have ordinary lives and it doesn't seem to have lessened their quality of life. sure, society at large didn't get as much benefit, but individual flameouts are probably one of the reasons we don't fully optimize for maximum societal contribution. i've also known smart people for whom knowledge of their high intelligence has not only been a burden but a hindrance to their personal success and fulfillment. the global optimum is probably not made of a bunch of local optima methinks.

derefr 10y ago

> accelerated curriculums and gifted and talented programs I may be an edge case, but I was put in those programs and hated them. I had a high IQ but also untreated Attention-Deficit Disorder. The last thing I wanted to do was to "wrack my brain" on difficult questions that felt like they were above my level, with the people around me suddenly placing high expectations on my being able to solve those problems. Sure, I probably could have solved those problems, but instead I just locked up. Now, give me creative freedom to pursue my own difficult questions with nobody evaluating my progress—and some good role-models with domain-experience who I could ask questions—and I would have been happy as a clam. But that is not what "gifted programs" tend to look like.

andai 10y ago
Yeah they're usually more of the same but further along the timeline.
tejasmanohar 10y ago
I was in a similar boat. Being "accelerated" in subjects you're not passionate about when you have other unaddressed interests is a recipe for disaster.