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Can some people who consider themselves knowledgeable in the "nature/nurture" debate, either side, weigh in here and educate me please? When I was 14 I liked l

Can some people who consider themselves knowledgeable in the "nature/nurture" debate, either side, weigh in here and educate me please? When I was 14 I liked listening to Linkin Park, writing cheesy QBasic code, and playing Final Fantasy games. Also girls were starting to really hit the radar at that point. Maybe my memory just sucks, but I don't recall there being much nuclear friggin' fusion in the mix. I'm guessing a lot of people, even the smarties here on Hacker News, were also sorta kinda average like me when they were 14 So, what gives? How do prodigies like this kid happen?

rossdavidh 8y ago
1) there are a LOT of people in the world; it may happen to one kid in 100,000, you will still hear about a few of them now that we get news from so many places 2) while it is quite possible that this kid did this, it is also possible that his parents did, and are pretending he did. Similar things have happened in the art world. But who knows, maybe he did.
semi-extrinsic 8y ago
While it is certainly impressive to build a fusor, I don't think it immediately follows that this kid is a prodigy. What it does show is that he has the skills to follow other's instructions and adapt them, and the work ethic to see a project through. The main obstacle facing most kids who want to put their energy into something like this, is that their parents can't give them a spare room to convert into a lab and $10,000 to spend on equipment.
codebolt 8y ago
I certainly can't compare myself to this kid in terms of achievement, but I got heavily into physics around 15-16 after an intense psychedelic experience made me start to obsess over the idea of figuring out "what the universe is made of" (to which studying and researching physics seemed to be the most optimistic approach of getting any solid answers). [This lead me down a path to getting my undergrad physics degree a few years later, but I eventually shifted my focus to CS and am now a software engineer, partially because my obsession faded over time and because I realized that a tenure track in physics wasn't really the kind of life or career I had originally envisioned.] What motivated me is probably not at all similar to what is going on with this kid, but I just wanted to offer it as an anecdote to how a teenager might become fascinated with physics, since you asked.
jboles 8y ago
I don’t know, writing silly projects in QBasic with VGA mode graphics and sound from the beeper definitely felt like fusion to me...
pmoriarty 8y ago
If you are interested in the nature/nurture debate, I encourage you to read up on the Polgar sisters, whose father set out to prove that genius is made, not born. All three sisters went from nothing to excelling at chess, though only one of them, Judit, went on to continue playing it as an adult and became the strongest female chess player of all time.[1][2] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r [2] - https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1990/06/13/09440007.h09.html https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1990/06/13/09440007.h09.h...
ChuckMcM 8y ago
It is an interesting question, certainly some parents are invested in the idea that they can "nurture" their child into being a genius. My experience with my three kids is that they were all different from the instant they are born, both in temperament and in interests. For me I felt there was a strong genetic component in what they as children were willing to invest their time into, and things which they really didn't care about. As a parent what I tried to foster was curiosity. Asking basic 'Why' questions and following those questions to where ever they led. The goal there was to help them experience the dopamine hit that I get when I figure something out, its a great motivator for learning, and to help develop their tools for learning things on their own. Did that explain why my eldest invented a new language? No, she wanted to be able to swear without being penalized for it. So I think there is certainly a certain 'make my life better for me' component to it as well. I was pretty obsessed with computers as a kid, and my parents did not have the means to help me buy a computer so I mostly tried to find other ways to get access. And to the extent that they could support that, they did (like giving me a ride to the University's remote job entry building.) What I'm trying to say is that there is also a resource component to it as well, I know and have mentored kids who would show up in stories like this if they had access to a moderate sized bank account to facilitate research. Bottom line for me is that the two largest influence factors that I've seen have been natural curiosity, and a support network that encouraged that curiosity.

rossdavidh 8y ago

1) there are a LOT of people in the world; it may happen to one kid in 100,000, you will still hear about a few of them now that we get news from so many places 2) while it is quite possible that this kid did this, it is also possible that his parents did, and are pretending he did. Similar things have happened in the art world. But who knows, maybe he did.

semi-extrinsic 8y ago

While it is certainly impressive to build a fusor, I don't think it immediately follows that this kid is a prodigy. What it does show is that he has the skills to follow other's instructions and adapt them, and the work ethic to see a project through. The main obstacle facing most kids who want to put their energy into something like this, is that their parents can't give them a spare room to convert into a lab and $10,000 to spend on equipment.

codebolt 8y ago

I certainly can't compare myself to this kid in terms of achievement, but I got heavily into physics around 15-16 after an intense psychedelic experience made me start to obsess over the idea of figuring out "what the universe is made of" (to which studying and researching physics seemed to be the most optimistic approach of getting any solid answers). [This lead me down a path to getting my undergrad physics degree a few years later, but I eventually shifted my focus to CS and am now a software engineer, partially because my obsession faded over time and because I realized that a tenure track in physics wasn't really the kind of life or career I had originally envisioned.] What motivated me is probably not at all similar to what is going on with this kid, but I just wanted to offer it as an anecdote to how a teenager might become fascinated with physics, since you asked.

jboles 8y ago

I don’t know, writing silly projects in QBasic with VGA mode graphics and sound from the beeper definitely felt like fusion to me...

pmoriarty 8y ago

If you are interested in the nature/nurture debate, I encourage you to read up on the Polgar sisters, whose father set out to prove that genius is made, not born. All three sisters went from nothing to excelling at chess, though only one of them, Judit, went on to continue playing it as an adult and became the strongest female chess player of all time.[1][2] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r [2] - https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1990/06/13/09440007.h09.html https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1990/06/13/09440007.h09.h...

ChuckMcM 8y ago

It is an interesting question, certainly some parents are invested in the idea that they can "nurture" their child into being a genius. My experience with my three kids is that they were all different from the instant they are born, both in temperament and in interests. For me I felt there was a strong genetic component in what they as children were willing to invest their time into, and things which they really didn't care about. As a parent what I tried to foster was curiosity. Asking basic 'Why' questions and following those questions to where ever they led. The goal there was to help them experience the dopamine hit that I get when I figure something out, its a great motivator for learning, and to help develop their tools for learning things on their own. Did that explain why my eldest invented a new language? No, she wanted to be able to swear without being penalized for it. So I think there is certainly a certain 'make my life better for me' component to it as well. I was pretty obsessed with computers as a kid, and my parents did not have the means to help me buy a computer so I mostly tried to find other ways to get access. And to the extent that they could support that, they did (like giving me a ride to the University's remote job entry building.) What I'm trying to say is that there is also a resource component to it as well, I know and have mentored kids who would show up in stories like this if they had access to a moderate sized bank account to facilitate research. Bottom line for me is that the two largest influence factors that I've seen have been natural curiosity, and a support network that encouraged that curiosity.