On top of that, he's largely (only?) able to do this because his parents have the resources and disposable income to drop $10,000[1] on their son's project and

On top of that, he's largely (only?) able to do this because his parents have the resources and disposable income to drop $10,000[1] on their son's project and awareness/ability to consult with experts[2]. That's not to say that his interest in hacking on nuclear fusion wasn't also a factor here -- obviously it was, but if that's all he had he wouldn't have gotten very far. One wonders how many kids swallowed up by poor, resource-starved neighborhoods would have been able to achieve similar feats given more access and resources. Kids generally have nothing but time -- so yeah, if you finance their projects and give them your support and an environment conducive to focusing on hacking on fusion reactors, or becoming chess or math or music prodigies, or whatever, they'll tend to do that. And likewise if you give them an environment conducive to trauma, financial stress, and poverty, well, that's what they'll tend towards. There are exceptions in both cases -- I'm sure many of us can think of people who came from wealth and ultimately didn't amount to much, and some of the most brilliant and accomplished people I know came from abject poverty. My point is that wealth and resources makes stuff easier -- or even possible in the first place. [1] > Building the nuclear fusion reactor was no game for Jackson. He converted an old playroom in his Memphis home into a functioning lab. With the financial support of his parents – he spent between $8,000 and $10,000 over the course of a year collecting the parts he needed to build his nuclear fusion reactor – that was apparently the easy part. [2] > Jackson’s father, Chris Oswalt, had no real understanding of what his son was working on. To make sure Jackson was safe he had experts speak to him about the dangers involved with working on a potentially deadly fusion reactor, like being exposed to high levels of radiation or being electrocuted by the 50,000 volts of electricity he uses to warm the fusion reactor’s plasma core. https://www.foxnews.com/science/teen-builds-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor-in-memphis-home https://www.foxnews.com/science/teen-builds-working-nuclear-...