This phenomenon has been know forever — back in the 60s my paediatrician mother said 12 year old boys are smarter than 13- and 14 yo ones but then the curve ben

This phenomenon has been know forever — back in the 60s my paediatrician mother said 12 year old boys are smarter than 13- and 14 yo ones but then the curve bends up, and my son’s school even discussed how they took that into account. What’s fascinating about the article is the focus on KPIs: the parents saw the performance lagging (esp in comparison to daughters) and decided intervention was required. The carpenter knows the wood has its own grain and structure; Michelangelo said that “the sculpture is inside the marble and must be let out” (fissures and seams must be taken into account), but somehow the modern middle class mentality is that the child must be bent in some procrustean fashion to fit the model. This affliction is well known to us programmers who see management setting unrealistic metrics to complex projects.