12 Year old with an IQ of 170.

[Chino]

This is pretty damn impressive. "The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369595/Jacob-Barnett-12-higher-IQ-Einstein-develops-theory-relativity.html

[ScioPath]

I am 15 and wat is this

[Fiery Winds]

This is pretty damn impressive. "The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369595/Jacob-Barnett-12-higher-IQ-Einstein-develops-theory-relativity.html

[jsem]

RL Sheldon Cooper

[icysk8r]

I can do that

[icysk8r]

He didn't care much to be held...
etc.

[Pirate]

double post fail


ON TOPIC

Good on this guy. A lot of people have high IQ's but do nothing with their abilities. This guy doesn't seem to be wasting a second of his life. And I thought I was smart for taking advanced math independently as well as a higher grade class and having a 95% average ... lol.

[rumborak]

I hope he doesn't burn out, because that's what happens too. I remember this super-student when I did my Master's in EE who only got straight A's, and then he switched subjects in the 4th semester to social sciences. He said he didn't like the topic anymore.

rumborak

[j]

double post fail

Yeah, but the second one still made me laugh.

Kid prodigies often don't turn out too well.  Hopefully he won't be too screwed up as an adult.

-J

[Fluffy Lothario]

I saw a documentary once about a kid like this from India. I think he was even younger, eight or nine. They took him to England and introduced him to a lab at a uni to see what might come of it. The reality was, the kid lacked the social skills or actual practical experience to achieve anything of worth with the scientists. He had no real concept of how to work with other people with his ideas, of how research is actually conducted, etc. Their end verdict was that he could be a brilliant scientist... once he was old enough and experienced enough.

[Chino]

I saw a documentary once about a kid like this from India. I think he was even younger, eight or nine. They took him to England and introduced him to a lab at a uni to see what might come of it. The reality was, the kid lacked the social skills or actual practical experience to achieve anything of worth with the scientists. He had no real concept of how to work with other people with his ideas, of how research is actually conducted, etc. Their end verdict was that he could be a brilliant scientist... once he was old enough and experienced enough.

It's very common for someone that is a genius in one category, to be almost crippled in another. I watched a documentary on idiot savants a few years ago. I believe it was inspired by Kim Peed / the movie Rain Man. It was all about people who have ridiculous amounts of talent in a certain area of study, but are more or less retarded everywhere else. One guy, I think he was almost twenty, had some of the most amazing artwork I have ever seen, sadly he had the mentality of a 4 year old. He would cry if him mom left the room, etc...

[dethklok09]

I have an iq of 118 am I supah smartz

[Ultimetalhead]

I heard 92 is supposed to be good.

[MetalManiac666]

This kid is nearly twice as smart as Wrath.

[Dr. DTVT]

This kid is nearly twice as smart as Wrath.

Half of 170 is 85.  That's not retarded.  I think it's closer to three times as smart.

I hope he doesn't burn out, because that's what happens too. I remember this super-student when I did my Master's in EE who only got straight A's, and then he switched subjects in the 4th semester to social sciences. He said he didn't like the topic anymore.

rumborak

My IQ isn't 170, but I am pretty damn smart, and this happens to me often.  I get bored with new hobbies/interests fast if they don't remain challenging.

[Fuzzboy]

I heard 92 is supposed to be good.

This kid is nearly twice as smart as Wrath.

i miss him, so much

[blackngold29]

So just because he's a genius he gets to write with markers on his window? Not fair.

[Kosmo]

That 12 year old kid is smarter than i am.

Life kind of sucks some times.

[DarkEternalNight]

So just because he's a genius he gets to write with markers on his window? Not fair.

Sounds like a little asshole that likes to ruin windows.

[Kura]

Great that he's good with math! Let's hope he has he common sense, empathy, and social skills to go with it- if he does then he's truly a wonderkid!

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

I am 15 and wat is this

That's what I was gonna say, only replace 15 with 16.

[Dr. DTVT]

So just because he's a genius he gets to write with markers on his window? Not fair.

Permanent marker on glass is an academic tradition because they're easy to clean should you so desire, and at the same time are not as prone to smudges when done properly.  I write on glass all the time.  I'd much rather write on glass than a white board or chalkboard.

[El JoNNo]

Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein

...Einstein never took an IQ test...

[In The Name Of Rudess]

Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein

...Einstein never took an IQ test...

No, but scientists have fairly accurate methods of determining people's IQ's by looking at their achievements. Einstein's IQ was estimated to be around 160.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I feel like the best thing for this kid would be to try and live a semi-normal life. He can revolutionize math and science when he's 25 - but let him have his childhood.

Then again, maybe his social skills are too impaired for him to have a normal childhood. Or maybe he can do all these things now and somehow evade burnout. Who knows?

[Ravenheart]

If he has aspergers, his social skills are impaired. I've been around autistic kids during my high school life; it's tough for them in there. One of the symptoms is an extreme focus and obsession in one specific topic--in this kid's case, math.

Anyway, good for him. Hopefully his parents nurture his gift in the most appropriate way possible.

[rumborak]

Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein

...Einstein never took an IQ test...

No, but scientists have fairly accurate methods of determining people's IQ's by looking at their achievements. Einstein's IQ was estimated to be around 160.

I'm always very cautious though when I see those statements about those high IQs. Problem is, the IQ scale follows a bell curve, and as such the more you deviate from the mean, the fewer and fewer amount of data defines a certain IQ segment.
To use the math, the IQ's bell curve is defined to have a standard deviation of 15. So, an IQ 170 is 4.6 standard deviations away from the mean, which in turn means 0.0019% of the population that have an IQ of 100. Obviously, 0.00019% isn't a lot of people, meaning this part of the IQ curve is defined by a handful of individuals and thus not really statistically significant.
I mean, there's no question these people have a way higher IQ than the average person, but the discussion of whether Einstein or this kid has a higher IQ is statistically a moot discussion. (to go completely technical, the problem is that the size of the confidence interval increases the further away from the mean you get. At 5 standard deviations away the confidence interval is quite likely much bigger than the difference in Einstein's and the kid's IQ).

rumborak

[TempusVox]

I hope he doesn't burn out, because that's what happens too. I remember this super-student when I did my Master's in EE who only got straight A's, and then he switched subjects in the 4th semester to social sciences. He said he didn't like the topic anymore.

rumborak

Rummy-

I too knew a guy in college who was a super engineering student. We met at a party. Jean-Claude Meunier. He was pretty cool, and we started to hang out. When I was a junior, he was only 19 and working towards two PhD's. One in ME and the other in EE. He already had three masters degrees. One in electrical, one in mechanical, and the third in bio chem. He was scary smart in engineering, but he had two weaknesses that began to develop. We both shared one extreme weakness---women. He also began to really start drinking pretty heavily (as a means to cover for his normally social awkwardness in pursuing his first weakness). By the time I was heading for graduate school, he had already withdrawn from the program, his advisors wanted nothing to do with him anymore, and he was looking for a way to stay in the US. He resurfaced a few years later when I was in law school, and he was of all places at Purdue trying to get back on track, but informed me he was dating "a couple of strippers", and thinking of returning to France.

Not the first time lust derailed a good man.

[rumborak]

The thing is, that kind of position in society creates so much pressure and expectations, that often enough they crack or do something totally different that has nothing to do with their skill.
My mom once told me that the teachers at my school were discussing having me skip a year, because I was perennially bored at school. My parents eventually decided against it; I was already one of the youngest in my class, and skipping another would have exacerbated it even further. And in hindsight, whether you get to do in your life what you want to depends on a lot of other factors too. A year ahead or not in school would have created a major social issue for me, with little educational benefit.
So, I essentially grew up in school never doing my homework. Worse things have happened to people

rumborak

[kári]

So, I essentially grew up in school never doing my homework. Worse things have happened to people

rumborak

Same here.. Worked great for high school (that's until 18 here), but not so great now that I'm in university... I don't really know how to study and I have zero attention span. The 'it's going to be alright' attitude has kind of burned into me.

[rumborak]

Oh yeah, me too. I went to university and suddenly realized that I couldn't just breeze through anymore. The single most important thing university taught me is to create my own motivation.

rumborak

[Pirate]

Oh yeah, me too. I went to university and suddenly realized that I couldn't just breeze through anymore. The single most important thing university taught me is to create my own motivation.

rumborak

What kind of marks were you getting "breezing through"?

[kári]

Oh yeah, me too. I went to university and suddenly realized that I couldn't just breeze through anymore. The single most important thing university taught me is to create my own motivation.

rumborak

What kind of marks were you getting "breezing through"?

Mine were average, but then I did literally nothing. Just kind of flapped the sheets of my books before an exam and only made assignments that were graded.

Oh yeah, me too. I went to university and suddenly realized that I couldn't just breeze through anymore. The single most important thing university taught me is to create my own motivation.

rumborak

How did you "create your own motivation"? I really wish I had done well on my first exams in January. I just couldn't bring myself to study more than 2-4 hours a day and even when I was studying it was at a very slow pace and with a lot of distractions and breaks. I got a 6, 7, 9, 9 and a 12 (all on 20) which kind of sucks. But even now I can't bring myself to keep up what we have seen so far in the second semester...

[Genowyn]

I had the same problem. I did almost no work whatsoever in high school and came out with honors and grades allowing me to get into the best mathematics school in the country.

University was a bit of a rude awakening.

[73109]

What school?