My Mom and MGM both went to college. The latter played pro-basketball during the 1920s and later ran a large business with her husband as the figurehead. Both were voracious readers and Feminists, but also romantics and deeply committed to their own personal freedom - my MGM loved to read Vanity Fair and Vogue even in her 80s. Both were neglectful mothers to a moderate degree, focusing on their personal interests and careers. My mother's siblings all got PHDs.

My dad had a perfect score in all of his military schools and had 100% availability on his airframes up to and including 20 craft. He left Vietnam with 5 Presidential Unit Citations. He managed the airframes used by NASA during the Lunar Missions. He can fix anything ever made. He never went to college and frowns on "too much book reading"!

My sister, bless her heart, is a rock. She has a great memory and is gifted athletically, but she cannot think long-term and books do not interest her. My sister's kids are all bright, but my sister is a bit of a neglectful mother.

One nephew is astonishingly capable at games. By his fifth chess match with me when he was 9 I had to work to beat him - he thinks many, many moves ahead. He beat his older siblings at Chinese Checkers using multiple jumps on his first game. Now that the kids are becoming independent, all four are reading a lot. But I think my sister's mothering or lack thereof has reduced their abilities from what they could be.

My wife and her dad have photographic memories. The FIL has the entire parts catalog for Ford memorized. My wife can recall verbatim any conversation she has. She won numerous school-district wide competitions when she was in middle school and she can beat ME at any videogame made. She made it all the way to end of Age of Empires a week after buying it. No one can follow her when she works in excel.

Nurture? My mom pretty much let me do what I wanted and took me to the library when I prodded. She rarely set limits on what I could or could not do. She had tons of books around on all subjects as did my MGM. I saw them read all the time.

My dad almost never read. My brothers who lived with my dad of a different wife are all successful at their fields and good men (and great dads - like their dad ) - one took to reading deeply in his 20s. Another is very good at video games and is a phenomenal welder. A third made partner at his firm. Their kids are all advanced physically - walking and running by age 1. One child is very, very good at videogames. I see no deep love of books in any of them, but its not like they are buried in books.

I had a deep burning desire to LEARN for as long as I can recall. I felt stymied and suffocated at my dad's, but I also felt loved and listened to, but with my mom amd MGM, I had tons of books and they would take me to events and places, but they also had their own interests - and this pushed me back to learning on my own.

We talk about nurture vs genetics - there is also one other property - that of positive or negative feedback. Its not enough to provide books or a loving environment. There has to be a dynamic between the parent and the child and the teacher and the world that raises the child's energy level and keeps it there - something that emerges from the interaction of these entities.