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I've heard this a lot, particularly on the old reddit, and it never really fit with my experience. I was told that I was precocious from when I was about three.

I've heard this a lot, particularly on the old reddit, and it never really fit with my experience. I was told that I was precocious from when I was about three. I was never particularly risk-averse academically; I sought out books and courses at the highest level I could, which was sometimes too high. I skipped into courses up to five years ahead of where I was officially, and probably didn't do quite as well as I could have, but I wanted to know it NOW, dammit! I have learned to be somewhat risk-averse because I have been trying to optimize admissions chances to various places, but other than consciously doing that, I've never noticed myself shying away from difficult things.

Prrometheus 19y ago
On the other hand, I saw myself and my struggles very clearly in this article. Maybe because I wasn't allowed to skip classes in government school, I made all A's very easily and was never really challenged. The real world has been difficult and frustrating for me because I am not used to failure. Try "acing" Unix the first time you attempt to learn it! I still fight with the little boy inside who cringes at disapproval from teacher every time my rails app serves up an error. Hopefully, being aware of my problem will enable me to eventually develop the Edisonian-tinkerer mentality that all the successful hackers seem to have. I am sure that many other hackers, being bright people, share this problem as well.