Okay I read a little more of the book--the part where Terman looked at the records of 730 of the men with very high IQs and divided them into three groups. The top 20% was the A group and the most successful. The middle 60% were the B group and they were doing satisfactorily. The bottom 150 were the Cs, the ones who Terman judged to have done the least with their superior mental ability.

My husband and I both have family members who might have fit in this C group. We are doing what we can to make sure our son does not end up like this, including reading books like Outliers and Gifted Hands.

My husband has worked since he was 13 to support himself after the death of a parent, including work on a farm and any other kind of work he could find so he could have enough to eat, and he joined the military as soon as he was able where his intelligence and hard work allowed him to move up in rank faster than most people. I think not having money actually helped him in some ways because he did develop that work ethic and he also had to figure out how to fix things and make them last as long as possible. He always seemed to be able to fix anything. Also, even though it looked like he had less free time than other people, he always found time to read and learn because he needs less sleep and has more energy than most people. I always wondered if that was part of the reason he was smarter than me. He slept less, therefore he had more hours to learn things than I did. My dad also had to work at a very young age to help support his family after his dad died. They both share their stories of surviving hard times with my son. I think my son is listening, but his life is so different, so much easier, with the internet available to answer all of his questions and so many games to spend his free time on when his dad and his grandfather had very little free time as kids.