4 ms·

Genes must have something to do with it. Take the case of Srinivasa Ramanujan No formal training in math. Made insane contributions to mathematics including so

Genes must have something to do with it. Take the case of Srinivasa Ramanujan No formal training in math. Made insane contributions to mathematics including solving "unsolvable" problems. > A child prodigy by age 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his home. He was later lent a book written by S. L. Loney on advanced trigonometry.[18][19] He mastered this by the age of 13 while discovering sophisticated theorems on his own. By 14, he received merit certificates and academic awards that continued throughout his school career, and he assisted the school in the logistics of assigning its 1,200 students (each with differing needs) to its approximately 35 teachers.[14]: 27 He completed mathematical exams in half the allotted time, and showed a familiarity with geometry and infinite series. Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902; he developed his own method to solve the quartic. In the following year, he tried to solve the quintic, not knowing that it could not be solved by radicals. If there was a method of raising kids like this "scientifically" , I bet a good portion of the worlds GDP would be put into this field of research

paulpauper 5y ago
People will delay a dental procedure but they will not delay making their kids #1.
- barry-cotter 5y ago
  I wish I lived in a world where that was true.
nefitty 5y ago
I'm not sure why people feel so allergic to the idea of a genetic intelligence boost. Our genes encode the layout of physical race tracks on which marbles of matter and information travel. Some people's bodies have a bunch of muscle tracks, so as they grow, their body benefits from the activity on those. They grow up to find it easier to gain muscle than other people. For geniuses, I imagine that the brain is a perfectly laid out super highway. Any information that comes in gets to where it needs to go because there's signs and signals and traffic cops patrolling. If some piece of information can't find where to go, well, damned if we don't have a construction worker and a navigator jumping in the passenger seat with you to help out. Ultimately, I think the brain is so plastic that each of us can one day decide to elect a new mayor to our body town. The new mayor can decide to tear up roads and fix potholes etc. Yeah, it would have been great if we had founded the town with a plan and hadn't had that college riot but here we are. Time to pave some roads.
- geodel 5y ago
  > I'm not sure why people feel so allergic to the idea of a genetic intelligence boost. Because it kinda puncture this feel good marketing bull that "you can be anything you want". It could also shut endless flowing money into extra-coaching classes outside normal schools which promise to "help child to reach their fullest potential".
  - nefitty 5y ago
    That does make sense. I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. I personally plan on hiring professional tutors for my children when I have them. Hopefully they're born with a lot of moldable clay, but either way, there are additional evidence-based education methods to utilize that promote mastery.
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    But you can be anything you want, what's set by nature is how hard you have to work for each milestone of it.
- adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
  The big reason is because there have been a number of studies that show that the ability of genetics to explain IQ is not especially major.
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    The studies trying to find the link between genetics and IQ are flawed in that they don't have a way to handle the interactions between genes. Instead they are based on correlations. If you will be good at baseball if you have A and B, OK with neither, but terrible with only one, those genes will be identified in most studies as having nothing to do with baseball, maybe even identified as harmful. I can offer a concrete example. Autism is more often found in high-IQ families, but itself is associated with decreased IQ. That suggests one case where either A and B alone are harmful, having neither makes you fine (and unlikely to bear children with A or B), and having both makes you smart. I am not sure if we want people to figure out how to make connections involving specific genes, because a lot of us benefit from living in a world where we can game LeetCode by working longer and harder in a way that's unrelated to what Google is looking for.

paulpauper 5y ago

People will delay a dental procedure but they will not delay making their kids #1.

barry-cotter 5y ago
I wish I lived in a world where that was true.

nefitty 5y ago

I'm not sure why people feel so allergic to the idea of a genetic intelligence boost. Our genes encode the layout of physical race tracks on which marbles of matter and information travel. Some people's bodies have a bunch of muscle tracks, so as they grow, their body benefits from the activity on those. They grow up to find it easier to gain muscle than other people. For geniuses, I imagine that the brain is a perfectly laid out super highway. Any information that comes in gets to where it needs to go because there's signs and signals and traffic cops patrolling. If some piece of information can't find where to go, well, damned if we don't have a construction worker and a navigator jumping in the passenger seat with you to help out. Ultimately, I think the brain is so plastic that each of us can one day decide to elect a new mayor to our body town. The new mayor can decide to tear up roads and fix potholes etc. Yeah, it would have been great if we had founded the town with a plan and hadn't had that college riot but here we are. Time to pave some roads.

geodel 5y ago
> I'm not sure why people feel so allergic to the idea of a genetic intelligence boost. Because it kinda puncture this feel good marketing bull that "you can be anything you want". It could also shut endless flowing money into extra-coaching classes outside normal schools which promise to "help child to reach their fullest potential".
- nefitty 5y ago
  That does make sense. I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. I personally plan on hiring professional tutors for my children when I have them. Hopefully they're born with a lot of moldable clay, but either way, there are additional evidence-based education methods to utilize that promote mastery.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  But you can be anything you want, what's set by nature is how hard you have to work for each milestone of it.
adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
The big reason is because there have been a number of studies that show that the ability of genetics to explain IQ is not especially major.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  The studies trying to find the link between genetics and IQ are flawed in that they don't have a way to handle the interactions between genes. Instead they are based on correlations. If you will be good at baseball if you have A and B, OK with neither, but terrible with only one, those genes will be identified in most studies as having nothing to do with baseball, maybe even identified as harmful. I can offer a concrete example. Autism is more often found in high-IQ families, but itself is associated with decreased IQ. That suggests one case where either A and B alone are harmful, having neither makes you fine (and unlikely to bear children with A or B), and having both makes you smart. I am not sure if we want people to figure out how to make connections involving specific genes, because a lot of us benefit from living in a world where we can game LeetCode by working longer and harder in a way that's unrelated to what Google is looking for.