I love listening to the “Stuff You Should Know” podcast. If you haven’t listened to it, I really recommend it. It’s one of the more established podcasts out there. The two hosts, Josh and Chuck, basically talk about a random topic that they have researched for 30-60 minutes. The other day on a drive to work I listened to one episode about William James Sides…a genius.
I had never heard of William James Sidis before. But his story is super interesting.
Basically it goes like this…
He was born in 1898 in America to Russian immigrant parents. Both parents were super smart. His dad advanced some pretty high level scientific theories. His mom was the first woman admitted to Boston Medical College, even though she didn’t end up attending.
They also had some interesting parenting theories. In short, they believed that basically any kid could be a genius if they were placed in the right environment and raised the right way. And they immersed their son in education from the very beginning.
By report, he was reading the New York Times by age 2. He spoke multiple languages by age 7. He was admitted to Harvard at age 11. Graduated at age 15. Became a professor at Rice University at age 17, when he was younger than most of his students.
But there were problems…
He had a very contentious relationship with media. From the beginning, the media was obviously fascinated by him. As a child he was often accosted for stories and photographs.
The media also apparently tried to break him down a lot. His immigrant parents implied that Americans were lazy in raising their “non-genius” kids. So either the Americans were right or the immigrant parents were. And the media for sure wanted to find reasons that the immigrants were wrong…so this meant breaking down this kid.
But that’s not the question
There are obviously issues with the way in which William James Sidis was raised. Notably the lack of emotional intelligence that was nurtured. He parents also eschewed play. And we know that play is very important to development.
But the question is whether genius is born or made?
I don’t know the answer. I guess if I had to give an opinion I think that we are all born with a range a native capabilities. Maybe this range is skewed more in one direction than another for certain skills in certain people. But were we achieve within that range? I say that depends on the environment.
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Either way, a really interesting story and though experiment!
What do you think? Is genius born or made? Had you heard of William James Sidis before? Any other good podcast recommendations? Let me know in the comments below!
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