Part of the reason I put this out there was because I attended college with a kid who father claimed that his son would become a Nobel Prize laureate by age 16. At the time he was the youngest kid to graduate from a 4 yr university in the US at 11. The kid was on 60 minutes and received quite a lot of fame. (I can show citations but I'd rather respect his privacy.) By the time I met the kid when he was 11, he was a real mess partly because of all the stress trying to live up to his dad's expectation. The summer after graduation the situation turned into a real mess that ended up with him living with his mom and back in junior high.
So when I see something like this I start to question the expectations placed on this child. No question he is impressive and a natural mathematician, but I wonder if all the press & expectations are good for him. Although after watching his talk, I am very impressed. Part of this may be because there is a huge difference between and 11 year old and a 14 year old.
Last edited by bluemagic; 05/15/13 09:12 PM.
