General > General Technical Chat

Belgian boy Laurent Simons heads off to university aged 8.

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sokoloff:
I doubt the data would support a “usually leads to” correlation between high IQ and depression.

tszaboo:

--- Quote from: TK on December 11, 2019, 01:28:41 am ---Apparently the parents want him to graduate at a certain age (trying to beat some sort of world record?) and the university is saying that he needs 6 more months to complete all the tests.

The parents are withdrawing him so he can go to start a PhD program in the US

Poor kid, let him have a childhood!  In 15 years he will be on par or just a little above the average person, him alone will not change the world. Not worth the sacrifice.

--- End quote ---
You know, that when I was in university, and wanted something done faster, or different, they told me "Tough shit, we dont have this course only every year, not every half year. Deal with it." I dont see a reason why they should make exceptions. One of the things you lear at university is to deal with life situations like this. And to learn how to drink like a proper man. And to see how you deal with losing friends because they have a baby or they dont pass a test and cannot continue the university. Its not just about the subjects. Too bad, his parents have trouble understanding this, because probably it will lead him to a extremely dysfunctional life, with several psychological problems.
IQ of 145 is not even that high. It is 3 sigma above average, meaning 0.15% of the population has that much. Or statistically, 65 people on this forum. Probably more, because of the correlation between hobby/occupation and general intelligence. So it is typical "do as I say otherwise I turn the media against you".

Koen:
He has leverage, you didn't. He'll go on to greener fields, you couldn't.

Bud:
Which greener fields are you talking about. He does not have working experience and will not get it until certain age because of labour regulations, so noone will give him a job. He will be contained in the child princess role. And by the working age his abilities may change.

nctnico:

--- Quote from: Berni on December 11, 2019, 06:20:27 am ---Also just because you can quickly pass exams does not mean you are smart. For a lot of school this just means you are good at memorizing stuff, especially for the first 10 years of education. Passing a history of geography exam is purely just about remembering things you read in the textbook. If you have good memory then you can finish a semester worth of history in a few days. For things like math yes its a lot more difficult, but if your ability to remember and quickly recall something is fine grained enough then you can just memories all the common steps for solving math problems. Physics is just again memorization of formulas with a sprinkle of math tacked on the end to calculate things.

--- End quote ---
Having a good memory helps indeed. Far less need for reasoning why but at some point memory alone doesn't work.


--- Quote ---Yet not long after the rules ware revoked because of complaints from students (and there parrents) that never miss classes. The argument being they still get the same grades and everything despite them putting in effort to attend every single class. :palm:

--- End quote ---
That reminds me of a semester of PSpice. We would get a test where you where allowed to use the manual and about 50% of the test was just plain electrical network analysis anyway. And then there where 2 extra points for a practicum. I decided to skip classes and the practicum. A couple of weeks after the test we had the same teacher and I was called to come forward. Ohoh...  maybe I failed due to skipping the practicum :scared:  Nothing like that though. He told me I had the highest grade of all students and because of that I got the practicum points for free. I never felt so much hate and envy as on that moment...

Back to Laurent:

--- Quote from: TK on December 11, 2019, 01:28:41 am ---Apparently the parents want him to graduate at a certain age (trying to beat some sort of world record?) and the university is saying that he needs 6 more months to complete all the tests.

--- End quote ---
I get the same feeling.  In a Dutch interview the parents claim a culture clash between Belgium and the Netherlands. I find this hard to believe because Eindhoven is 15km from the Belgian border. Now they want to send him to a university in the US. Talking about a culture clash...

--- Quote ---Poor kid, let him have a childhood!  In 15 years he will be on par or just a little above the average person, him alone will not change the world. Not worth the sacrifice.

--- End quote ---
Well, if Laurent is clever he piles a few more studies on top to become an expert in several fields. Someone who is an expert in several fields can be extremely valuable for developing new technologies (and will confuse the hell out of any HR droid  >:D).

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