Kid genius

Yup. It's not much of a surprise that Math is one of the things he took off in, as it is a very simple thing to understand from a logic standpoint compared to language.

*has Asperger's*

I believe Aspergers is more of a gift than a curse. It's better not to be able to communicate with the stupid, not being able to understand them only takes the temptation of talking to them away!

I believe Aspergers is more of a gift than a curse. It's better not to be able to communicate with the stupid, not being able to understand them only takes the temptation of talking to them away!

I have made neither statement in whether it's a gift or a curse. Also, you already sound like a bigot. Sometimes the stupid have something profound to share too, be it ideas or their talents.

I'm under the impression that you think all Asperger people have issues with communication. That's not entirely true (but not entirely false either).

I have made neither statement in whether it's a gift or a curse. Also, you already sound like a bigot. Sometimes the stupid have something profound to share too, be it ideas or their talents.

I'm under the impression that you think all Asperger people have issues with communication. That's not entirely true (but not entirely false either).

lol, I'm sorry I said that with a jokingly tone, people treat it as a problem, I think of it as a solution of the plaque of stupidity. That's all.

His multiplication video isn't original.

He acknowledged that it's an ancient technique. I know it isn't original, but it's one of the few that he actually taught the method to completion, unlike his other ones, in which he flakes half-way.

That statement is not very accurate. He might be bigginer level on the piano, or maybe just doesnt have as much of an interest in it, but that doesnt me he doesnt know how to play. He can certainly out play most people who "obviously" dont know how to play the piano.

No. He doesn't know how to play at all. Look at his posture. Look at his seat. Look at where he rests his hands. More than likely, his parents showed him how to press buttons, much like pigeons can be trained to peck at levers for food. You can also tell that he wanted to leave the piano, but his mother kept forcing him to go on. Also, if you watch closely, near 5:30, he presses down on a key and starts vibrating his finger back and forth on the same key. Like... wtp. The piano isn't a violin. >_>"

No. He doesn't know how to play at all. Look at his posture. Look at his seat. Look at where he rests his hands. More than likely, his parents showed him how to press buttons, much like pigeons can be trained to peck at levers for food. You can also tell that he wanted to leave the piano, but his mother kept forcing him to go on. Also, if you watch closely, near 5:30, he presses down on a key and starts vibrating his finger back and forth on the same key. Like... wtp. The piano isn't a violin. >_>"

Like I said, beginner level (misspelled beginner last time). You cant compare him to a trained pigeon though. It takes more than just showing how to push buttons to play a music piece. Yes I saw where he wanted to stop and him mom wanted him to continue, that part was kind of BS. I also saw the part where he was moving his finger back and forth on the same key, but I think it was more that he was bored and wanted to be done than him thinking it was a violin. You are trying to show that this kid is being exploited by his family in some way, but I am not certain that is the case. I think they are just proud and want the rest of the world to see his gift and see that he is more than just that gift as well.

It's no doubt he's a genius, but I'm questioning the validity of the piano playing skills.

You are trying to show that this kid is being exploited by his family in some way, but I am not certain that is the case. I think they are just proud and want the rest of the world to see his gift and see that he is more than just that gift as well.

> mathboysmom

Okay.

> mathboysmom

Okay.

Dunno how he is able to fool professors, though. He seems to be legit.

Dunno how he is able to fool professors, though. He seems to be legit.

The kid is obviously very smart and not normal.

His mother is also obviously exploiting the kid in a way he is not comfortable with.

No one is saying the kids a fake. We're saying his mom is a plum.

The kid is obviously very smart and not normal.

His mother is also obviously exploiting the kid in a way he is not comfortable with.

No one is saying the kids a fake. We're saying his mom is a plum.

Not that I agree with the kind of spotlight his mother proudly pins him under, but does he really understand the social aspect of WHY it could be bad? Why if he had a choice, he wouldn't want this sort of attention? I don't think so. I liked the spotlight once, but then I found out the hard way why overachieving isn't socially acceptable. I'm not sure we should really assume that hes not comfortable by it.

I wonder if he'd pursue astrophysics as something he'd settle with and depend on for the rest of his life. Would he ever wonder what life is like going through school at the pace everyone goes through?

I'm not sure we should really assume that hes not comfortable by it.

It's because he seems really uncomfortable with it.

Yeah he probably does/will wonder, so what. Everyone wonders about what ifs.

And their is not a social implication here or some negative to him getting attention. That's not a problem. It's being forced into it. It's not healthy and if he doesnt like it it's hardly going to encourage his gifts.

Not that I agree with the kind of spotlight his mother proudly pins him under, but does he really understand the social aspect of WHY it could be bad? Why if he had a choice, he wouldn't want this sort of attention? I don't think so. I liked the spotlight once, but then I found out the hard way why overachieving isn't socially acceptable. I'm not sure we should really assume that hes not comfortable by it.

I wonder if he'd pursue astrophysics as something he'd settle with and depend on for the rest of his life. Would he ever wonder what life is like going through school at the pace everyone goes through?

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

I'm all for letting the kid grow at his own pace and keep our fingers crossed that he'll take us to the next level of knowledge instead of bringing himself down on his own knees in the toilet. We're just not ones to guess, let alone decide, what is and isn't good for him. His mom shouldn't be either, but there's no saying she does not try to be.

I liked the spotlight once, but then I found out the hard way why overachieving isn't socially acceptable.

What? Since when?

What? Since when?

Since as far as I know. I was going to ignore somebody's ignorance and naiveness for saying there is no social implication because it'd be one long post and irrelevant, but since more than one is curious, Alright, let's try you.

 Spoiler

My family moves a lot. I've been through enough different schools to almost equal 1 school per grade. In the elementary school age, I was just learning english then. I had to go back and forth between ESL. Two issues I faced with my peers: name calling, and making fun of me because my english is less than perfect. This was the first five grades - spent in 4 different schools, each school's kids werent much different. The next 4 grades I'd become something of an underachiever and then an overachiever. When I underachieved, the overachievers called me ugly and stupid and I was just shoved aside and left out. And I was left with a grand total of 2 friends - one who pitied me the other who genuinely liked me. When I overachieved, the adults in my family flaunted me, the more they flaunted the worse my relationships with my cousins became. And my peers generally didn't receive me very well either. They thought I was a snotty smartass. Racism was far less here. And I decided right then that I didn't like the spotlight. I was about 11 then. My childhood best friend/cousin and I ended up in bad terms with eachother because suddenly everyone would be like "Why can't you be like Beloved because she x and y?" I value my friendship over rep so I threw rep out of the window. I got into major pomegranate for it, but I was content.

Middleschool came, I ended up on the other side of the country. The first middle school I ended up in was okay. But the second one ended up badly because of the first one (I spent half a year in each). In the first one, I learnt, for ex. 1 2 3 4 to 10. In the second one, they went backwards. 10 9 8 7 and I dropped in right after 5. So this time, another bout of rejection came .. all because I knew material. Music and arts came naturally to me and i remember, I was far behind in music because the music teacher in the first school just didnt give a pomegranate. I had a week to get the upper octaves down and right after barely learning it I had a test on the same week friday. I gotta admit, it is the lowest mark I'd ever gotten in music .. in front of the whole danged class too. It blew a hole into my dignity to pineapple up that bad (while I don't remember the score, I do remember it was a fail lol cuz I didn't memorize nor play the upper octaves very well and the whole song was out of the range that I could play). My peers smirked at me - happy that I finally suck at something. A lot of trash talking started happening here, most of them claiming I was a liar. That I was basketball team captain at my old school (lolwut??) that I got better grades cuz the teacher liked me etc. But anyway, given the circumstances, I was given the opportunity to redo the test in 1 week. And I did with flying colors. The trash talking got worse after this. I remember one day walking back to get something from my locker at break, I passed by my home room and I heard one of them say something to the effect of "What a pineapplein overachiever, I should just rip this pomegranate up." - and i saw it was my work they referred to. But I'm guna stop this story here because the rest is not relevant.

So anyway, fast forward to the last 2 years of my highschool. I switched into university level classes then, and found amongst a group of intelligent peers - who, to my surprise, didn't reject me because I knew far less than them (best way of doing this in toronto's curriculum is starting uni level right from Grade 9). I do sort of wonder if it was because I was still the underachiever here but anyway. College came, and the same pattern exists here: the bullying was non-existant and environment encouraged learning. There were tiny amounts of rejection by the overachievers but not past the point of stupidity like it'd been in middleschool. Tada happy ending?? lol

Yes, maybe I just had a world of rotten luck but you simply cannot say that it's non-existent in our society.

Here's the thing with overachieving. It's definitely socially acceptable so long as you're aware of its social implications. I'm friends with more brilliant overachievers than I care to count at the moment, but a lot of them are totally "fine" and "normal" in real life social settings because they know how and what to say in public. The problem with overachieving that makes it socially unacceptable is when it's all the overachiever knows how to do. For example, if the kid this thread is all about flaunts his vast intellect everywhere he goes, he would be seen as unbelievably annoying and would probably not make as many friends or be invited to as many social events as he would if he acted below his intelligence level to match that of his average peer.

Now that's not saying that's what he, or anyone with such intellectual capacity, wants in life; if such people could care less about the social settings they find themselves, and put their studies above everything else because, hey, that's what they want and that's who they are, then kudos, A+, go for it. But social gatherings always require a degree of awareness with regards to the people attending them, so as to know what's right to say and what's not. Don't like the social groups available? Find ones more fitting to you, ex. a group of nerdy braniacs if that's what you're looking for.

I feel I'm not saying this well at all, so I'll try and tl;dr it: if you want to live a stereotypically "popular, social" life, it's important to be aware of one's intellect when compared to the average at social gatherings, and absolutely imperative to be able to regulate such intellect when in such situations. You shouldn't always have to do this, because if you do you're probably not hanging out with people whom you'd consider very good friends. But there will always be times when one's thrust into situations, per se, "intellectually beneath them," and it's at times like that where it's of the utmost importance to not "look down" on others intellectually, because it's annoying and rude.

.....does that help at all Harrison? There are so many things to be said in a situation like this that it's hard to find the right phrasing, plus I have an ungodly amount of work to do, so I'm not exactly spending oodles of time perfecting my post - my apologies.

Beloved, I read your story, and I don't see how it contradicts my question. I have a similar story myself, but I'm not going to post it here.

The problem here is stereotyping. People tend to assume that a person can't simultaneously have high intelligence and social skills. The two qualities are independent of one another, and it is definitely true, probability-wise, that it is more likely for a person to have one refined than both. However, it does not rule out the possibility that a person can possess both.

The problem here is stereotyping. People tend to assume that a person can't simultaneously have high intelligence and social skills. The two qualities are independent of one another, and it is definitely true, probability-wise, that it is more likely for a person to have one refined than both. However, it does not rule out the possibility that a person can possess both.

Regardless of your social skills there are people who will resent you in life simply for their belief that you may better than them (at something).
You don't have to do anything whatsoever to foster this belief, in fact you can be incredibly supportive of them and they'll still take it as condescension or worse; They're insecure little wads of angst who see everyone around them as competition and try to assert their own superiority by attacking the self esteem and any other perceived weaknesses they can find or create.

The other drawback of being exceptional is it fosters unrealistic expectations and puts an inordinate amount of pressure on a person when everyone keeps expecting them to live up to their own definition of what it means to be exceptional.

Beloved, I read your story, and I don't see how it contradicts my question. I have a similar story myself, but I'm not going to post it here.

The problem here is stereotyping. People tend to assume that a person can't simultaneously have high intelligence and social skills. The two qualities are independent of one another, and it is definitely true, probability-wise, that it is more likely for a person to have one refined than both. However, it does not rule out the possibility that a person can possess both.

Detail and explanation-wise .. Froz and eos summed it up (thanks - I suck at this). When I replied, the key thing I was countering was the statement/implication that it's non-existent. Although I think I did a decent job of proving that it does exist. Take note of the time lines, though. Elementary to highschool it's less acceptable. Beyond that, it starts to get better as people mature up. Each age range has a different level of maturity, which is where Eos' explanation comes in. There's so many factors that determine the outcome of a relationship. It doesn't necessarily have to be you, acting all smartass & purposely showing off because sometimes it's just people taking something the wrong way. Then one thing after another, it just snowballs into an avalanche. Which, in my case, would be more true. But for your sake, I think I will retract a sentence with bad wording. You're right that it's not socially unacceptable - which makes me a hypocrite. The proper statement would be that it's mostly socially unacceptable.

Detail and explanation-wise .. Froz and eos summed it up -snip-

What they are saying is vastly different than what you said. Achieving excellence or overachieving is not socially unaccaptable. Being a giant prick about your giant brain is not achieving anything at all, let alone overachieving. It's just being a braggart.

It's because he seems really uncomfortable with it.

Yeah he probably does/will wonder, so what. Everyone wonders about what ifs.

And their is not a social implication here or some negative to him getting attention. That's not a problem. It's being forced into it. It's not healthy and if he doesnt like it it's hardly going to encourage his gifts.

Keyword: not.

What? Since when?

-> implying it does not exist.

Since as far as I know. I was going to ignore somebody's ignorance and naiveness for saying there is no social implication because it'd be one long post and irrelevant, but since more than one is curious, Alright, let's try you.


Yes, maybe I just had a world of rotten luck but you simply cannot say that it's non-existent in our society.

Detail and explanation-wise .. Froz and eos summed it up (thanks - I suck at this). When I replied, the key thing I was countering was the statement/implication that it's non-existent. Although I think I did a decent job of proving that it does exist. Take note of the time lines, though. Elementary to highschool it's less acceptable. Beyond that, it starts to get better as people mature up. Each age range has a different level of maturity, which is where Eos' explanation comes in. There's so many factors that determine the outcome of a relationship. It doesn't necessarily have to be you, acting all smartass & purposely showing off because sometimes it's just people taking something the wrong way. Then one thing after another, it just snowballs into an avalanche. Which, in my case, would be more true. But for your sake, I think I will retract a sentence with bad wording. You're right that it's not socially unacceptable - which makes me a hypocrite. The proper statement would be that it's mostly socially unacceptable.

Given response.

1. Froz's point is written in the first sentence of his post. He and I argue that it does in fact exist. I gave a generalization that it exists, he gives examples in which it is possible that it may not be a problem, however, both is evidence claim that it exists.

2. As I said before, "I'm not sure if we should really assume he's not comfortable with it." Keyword: assume. You don't know how he lives his life at the moment, we can merely guess that his mother is proudly showing him off to the world but as far as the videos go? Imo, he looks like hes explaining how his favorite toy works. I interpreted it as one way, u interpreted it the other way. That's cool, but you stated there is no social implications. That's where I think some naiveness shows. Not having experienced something and not having seen it with your own eyes does not mean it doesn't exist.

3. To me, this thread is more like read, give 2 cents, leave. Right now, it feels like an topic about this cool kid turned into a thread in rubiks cube. --> Reason why I didn't care enough to pick it up and explain.