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The title was misleading in the sense that the article in itself is much more than about creativity. I thought it had more to do with emotions, psychology and e

The title was misleading in the sense that the article in itself is much more than about creativity. I thought it had more to do with emotions, psychology and effects. After reading the whole article, I am in awe of how he knows kids so well! I feel sorry that creative professor mother + phd math father did only so much for their son, putting their own pursuits first instead. But I guess that is how today's world is and will be.

tptacek 18y ago
You can read it like that, or you can read it as a story about a guy who could be leading a completely charmed life, except for the fact that the personality traits that give him instantaneous connections with 4 year olds also make it hard for him to lead a normal life --- the same way genetic mutations can make us more attractive and more susceptible to specific diseases, or the same way that David Foster Wallace's brain could ricochet through a thousand ideas in a couple pages, but also get so tangled up and hopeless that he was compelled to kill himself. As in, a story about how things that seem simple --- let's write an ebook, how to make $100,000 a year with a 2 hour work week! --- are actually really complex, because we're humans and not 300 word business model posts on Hacker News. Is what I think you could think of it, is all.
shard 18y ago
I don't quite see it as their parents putting their own pursuits first. Rather, he is so different from them in the way he thinks that they just don't relate to each other. Imagine a field that you have no interest in, or maybe even feel repulsion for, maybe it's NASCAR racing, or piano tuning, or salsa dancing, or the two argument starters: politics and religion. Now imagine your child has the kind of personality that will make him a master in that field. How do you relate to his thoughts and interests?

tptacek 18y ago

You can read it like that, or you can read it as a story about a guy who could be leading a completely charmed life, except for the fact that the personality traits that give him instantaneous connections with 4 year olds also make it hard for him to lead a normal life --- the same way genetic mutations can make us more attractive and more susceptible to specific diseases, or the same way that David Foster Wallace's brain could ricochet through a thousand ideas in a couple pages, but also get so tangled up and hopeless that he was compelled to kill himself. As in, a story about how things that seem simple --- let's write an ebook, how to make $100,000 a year with a 2 hour work week! --- are actually really complex, because we're humans and not 300 word business model posts on Hacker News. Is what I think you could think of it, is all.

shard 18y ago

I don't quite see it as their parents putting their own pursuits first. Rather, he is so different from them in the way he thinks that they just don't relate to each other. Imagine a field that you have no interest in, or maybe even feel repulsion for, maybe it's NASCAR racing, or piano tuning, or salsa dancing, or the two argument starters: politics and religion. Now imagine your child has the kind of personality that will make him a master in that field. How do you relate to his thoughts and interests?