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This is a really good article. And the author is right that it is so easy to feel like you should quit doing math or physics or CS, because you see that person
by kenjackson 12y ago
This is a really good article. And the author is right that it is so easy to feel like you should quit doing math or physics or CS, because you see that person who is your age, that just seems better at it than you are.
What I have found really humbling in life is how many people have accomplished so much more than I have, without my background. And if you look at the resumes of folks like David Cutler, Linus Torvalds, Ed Witten, etc... these folks didn't rise up through Olympiad events with the genius label their whole life.
I know this is cliché, but it really does seem like building determination and excitement is at least as important than simply pouring skills in child geniuses.
- wting 12y agoI don't have the citations on hand, but someone looked into the breakthroughs scientists discovered in their 20's and those in later stages of their career. The types of papers published from younger scientists (Einstein, Newton) were more abstract, while those published from the older generation were those that could only be realized from decades of hard work.