Monthly Archives: August 2006

Genius

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Even ‘the smartest person ever born’ (estimated IQ 250 – 300). See list of accomplishments below (from a quote dated 16 September1998 – Doug Renselle) got some C’s and B’s in college. Of course, he was 10 yrs old and at Harvard….

William James Sidis is arguably the brightest human who ever existed on our planet Earth.

Sidis’ extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments:

1. Given IQ is a purely anthropocentric means of assessing intelligence, Sidis’ IQ is crudely estimated at 250-300.
2. Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah as bedtime stories.
3. Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error).
4. Cajoled by Boris, Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib.
5. At six months, Billy said, “Door.” A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move.
6. At seven months he pointed to Earth’s moon and called it, “moon.” He wanted a ‘moon’ of his own.
7. Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11.
8. Learned to spell efficiently by one year old.
9. Started reading The New York Times at 18 months.
10. Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy’s.
11. Read Caesar’s Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy’s fourth year.
12. Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year.
13. Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year.
14. At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian.
15. Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars.
16. Learned Gray’s Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination.
17. Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months.
18. At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics.
19. Corrected E. V. Huntington’s mathematics text galleys at age of eight.
20. Total recall of everything he read.
21. Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and astronomy, lost.
22. Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven.
23. Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight.
24. Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers.
25. At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce’s book manuscript: citing, “wrong paragraphs.”
26. Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine.
27. In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11.
28. In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on ‘Four-Dimensional Bodies.’
29. Billy graduated from Harvard, cum laude, on June 24, 1914, at age 16.
30. Billy entered Harvard Law School in 1916.
31. Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
32. Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!
33. More recently, in late 2005, we commence recognition of Billy’s probable (perhaps only intuitive) adeptness in ancient Judaic Gematria and Hermetics. Doug – 8Dec2005. Again, refer Sam Rosenberg’s conjectures. Perhaps there is even more than Sam decrypted. Billy: quanton(Hyde,Jekyll).

Here is a partial list of known publications of William James Sidis:

1. First book ? a grammar, The Reader.
2. Second book ? a new language, Book of Vendergood, Vendergood is simpler than Esperanto.
3. First Book on Calendars ? only a first part (how to make a calendar) of his book survives.
4. The Hesperia Constitution ? Billy’s own code of behavior, available from Harvard Archives.
5. ‘Unconscious Intelligence’ ? Appendix IV to Boris’ book, Symptomatology, Psychognosis and Diagnosis of Psychopathic Diseases ? in this essay, Billy proved subconscious is conscious (using SOM’s universal truth ? Pirsig would find this incredible, because Billy preconceived one universal truth, but you can see here Pirsig on Sidis’ man vs. monkey/squirrel philosophical logic, Pirsig saw similar logic as relative, not absolute ? an example of MoQ’s many truths. Sidis viewed monkey logic and human logic as, “two theories whose consequences are, and must be the same” via his assumption of isomorphism.) See pp. 105-6 of The Prodigy, 1st edition.
6. A book on an Ouija board.
7. Sidis’ first published book on physics, The Animate and the Inanimate. His unique, totally self-conceived, masterwork. A 1920 effort published in 1925 . In this book he predicts black holes before anyone even thought of them. Amy Wallace’s coverage here (reversibility, non-classical thermodynamics, etc.) is superb. See chapter 11 of The Prodigy. Also, see Pirsig discovers Sidis, nearby.
8. An article, ‘A Remark on the Occurrence of Revolution,’ published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His article basically says that oppressed people revolt.
9. A novel on lost Atlantis ? never published, apparently lost.
10. Sidis’ second and last published book (1926), Notes on the Collection of Transfers.
11. The Transfer Guide to the District of Columbia, The Transit Guide to the Northeast Suburbs of Boston, etc. Note that no guides of this sort were in existence when he wrote them. They were useful. Note too, he had them all memorized!
12. The Peridromophile, a monthly Sidis publication, starting in September of 1926, 10 cents per issue or $1 per year.
13. Part I: The Tribes and the States, and Part II: The Peace Paths, Sidis’ 1200 page magnum opus, a revisionist history of USA. Only Part I and first page of Part II survive.
14. The Penacook Courier, an apparently ruse newspaper used by Sidis to promote his legend-history of the USA.
15. Continuity News, successor to The Penacook Courier, published under Sidis’ favorite pen name: Parker Greene.
16. The Orarch, successor to Continuity News, motto: ‘Grant to Others All Rights You Would Have Others Grant to You.’ When he started this publication, he started a Liberty War Objectors Association. LWOA was an organization advocating conscientious objection and objection to war and production activities supporting war.
17. The Libertarian, started in February, 1944 after a stint with Julius Eichel’s, The Absolutist. His motto of The Libertarian was a Jeffersonian quote, “That Government Is Best Which Governs Least.”

Here is a partial list of William James Sidis’ idiosyncratic and acultural behaviors:

1. Utter disregard of sports and physical activities ? learned from his father.
2. Utter disregard of things monetary ? learned from his father.
3. Utter disregard for academia, academicians, academic bureaucracy and their ‘titles.’
4. Collected street car transfers. Knew most details of most routes in USA.
5. Rabid atheist by age six. (His father, Boris, was too, but intensely studied great religious works.)
6. His only fear was dogs.
7. Learned to hate mathematics in grammar school; later at 7.5 years he started a life long love of math.
8. Avid interest in politics.
9. Dressed in Russian peasant clothes as a minor.
10. On hearing a Bible read aloud, declared he didn’t believe in that and didn’t want to hear it.
11. In school, only worked problems to which he didn’t know answers.
12. After 3 months in high school, parents withdrew him; teachers were relieved.
13. Thinking was his chosen refuge from media antagonists.
14. Essence of Billy Sidis: On page 106, of The Prodigy, Amy Wallace quotes Billy on his view of the perfect life, “I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is to live it in seclusion. I have always hated crowds.” These sentences, in your reviewer’s opinion, are an excellent micro-biography of mankind’s finest known intellect.
15. Celibate: Vowed never to marry. (One of his 154 rules for life.) “Women do not appeal to me.” See Pirsig’s comments on this below ? Pirsig on Sidis’ celibacy
16. Considered traditional classrooms, ‘stifling.’
17. Billy was a pacifist, anti-war, conscientious objector. (See our research link at top of page.)
18. He was a reformed communist/socialist ? eventually found both intellectually disgusting.
19. Paradoxes were his logical specialty.

…”

The new boat

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A great phrase – “hedonic adaptation” – in reference to the fact that the purchase of new ‘toys’ – cars, boats, etc are initially very pleasure-inducing, but the thrill quickly fades as the owner becomes accustomed to the object. In contrast, great vacations, time with family and friends tend to cause more longstanding happiness, since one does not grow accustomed to the memories – they are a continuing source of pleasure. Thus, I bought a boat… (the logical conclusion)
 
 

Mar 9, 2001 – 1 Photo
 

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When my son Chase was a toddler, he unfortunately became fascinated by electrical outlets. He would try to push his fingers into them, and then advanced to tryingto insert other objects. Of course, we immediately purchased outlet covers to childproof the house. These were plastic ‘plugs’ that were flat discs with plastic prongs that could be pushed into the outlet with difficultly, and removed with even more difficultly by essentially prying them out. After a few days, he became adept at prying them out. We then purchased a sturdier type of protecter that was screwed into the outlet. After another week or so, he had nearly succeeded in removing one of them, covertly working on the task when we were not watching. Thinking perhaps I could scare him away from this obsession, I decided to try to ‘scare some sense into him’ the next time he was caught red-handed. One day, I had my chance. he was vigorously pulling at the outlet. I ran over, picked him up under his arms, and held him above my head, with our faces inches apart. “Don’t you EVER touch those outlets!” I said sternly, with the thought of my response to being picked up by a 12 foot tall giant in mind (blind obedience to all instructions given). “YOU – PUT – ME – DOWN – NOW !!!”, he shouted, without the slightest trace of anxiety. I new at that moment, I was in for trouble…. When my son Ryan was 3 or 4 years old, we went to a restaurant. The waitress seated us, and passed out menus. After a time, she returned to take our orders. Finally, she asked Ryan, “And what can I get for you, Honey?” “Soup!” came the reply. After a moment, she said, “What kind of soup?” There was a minute of silence as he pondered this question. With a perfect ‘What kind of idiot are you?’ look on his face, he said flatly, “Hot.” The basement window Didn’t know there were 2 outs Don’t need a haircut for a million years.

One rainy night after a long flight back from vacation, my wife was driving our older car (the one we chose to leave parked at the airport for 10 days). Everyone was tired, and the driver’s side windshield wiper functioned poorly. In the back seat, our 10 yr old daughter was chattering away, mostly about nothing in particular. “Please be quiet, Colby”, said my wife – “I’m trying to drive, we’re tired, and its dark and raining”. A brief period of silence ensued. Soon, however, the talking resumed. After a few minutes, my wife said, “Now, I’ve asked you to be quiet. I want you to stop talking constantly”. Again, there were a few minutes of silence. Once again, our daughter began happily (and loudly) recounting the highlights of our vacation. Finally, my wife could stand it no longer. “Will you please shut up!”, she shouted. After a moments silence, a very soft sound (rouurr) – the sound of a cat voicing a warning to an approaching dog, was heard from the back seat. “Colby ?” said my wife. From the back seat came the prompt reply, “I was talking to Dad.”

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In a restaurant, the waitress asked our children what they wanted for dinner. Each of the children made a selection. My wife asked the server about the “catch of the day”. After hearing the description, she ordered it. I thought this sounded appealing, so when I was asked for my order, I said, “I think I’ll have the same thing as well.” After the waitress left with the orders, my 10 yr old daughter said, “Not much of an individualist, are you ?” “How on earth did you know that word”, I asked. “Well, duh”, she said. “individual means a person, doesn’t it?”

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On vacation, a boy at the hotel swimming pool struck up a conversation with us. He had 3 older sisters and no brothers. We have 3 boys and one girl (the youngest). As we hurried through the airport a few days later, my daughter remarked (apropos of nothing) how lucky the boy was to have 3 sisters, while she herself had none. “I wish I had a sister”, she said. “You really kind of dropped the ball in the creating kids department.” After we passed 3 or 4 gates in the airport, a bit of self-realization crept in. “But then I wouldn’t be your onliest daughter, would I?” “No,” I answered, “you wouldn’t”. Another brief pause. “Well, I guess we could just treat the kid like a bag of dirt,” she said. As I tried to regain my mental orientation, we continued towards our gate. “Why is it that a red-headed stepchild gets treated worse than blond-haired step children?”, she said. “Good question,” I said.

The theme of being the only girl was a recurring one. A few years earlier, my daughter was urging my wife to have another baby in order to provide her with a younger sister. We explained that a) this was perhaps not a particularly good reason to bring another life into the world, and b) there were certainly be no guarantee that she would get a sister instead of a brother. “Well,” she said. “I’ll tell you what I would be doing if I found out it was a boy. Packing a suitcase, that’s what I’d be doing”.

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In a jewelry / mineral store, my wife purchased a small polished “worry stone” for me. Made of jasper, the shape was intended to allow the user to rub it between thumb and forefinger. My wife thought it might provide an alternative to fidgeting or worrying my cuticles. ”Here,” said my daughter, “let me show you how to use it. “OhmyGod, the bills, the bills!” she said as she rubbed the stone, a terrified expression on her face. “Thanks”, I said.

My daughter is very good at selecting presents for people. She manages to make a mental note to herself throughout the year whenever someone in the family mentions something they like or wish they had. She can then recall the treasured item months later and surprise someone with a gift they had forgotten they wanted. As I was sitting at my desk a few weeks before father’s day, she pulled up a chair. With a legal pad on her lap, legs crossed, she said, “We need to take a meeting”. “Fine”, I said. “I’m making a father’s day list for you”, she said. “How about computer thingies – you seem to kike those – any ideas?” “Sorry,” I said, “I’ve pretty much got all the computer stuff I need, except a set of speakers, and they’re too expensive.” “You’re a tough guy to shop for”, she said, “ so I’m going to put them down, but I’m going to have to write ‘expensive’ next to it”, she said. Gesturing towards the bookshelves, she said “How about some more books?” “ Can’t think of any I want right now,” I said. After a few more minutes of this, she said, reading from the legal pad with my half-rimmed glasses perched on her 10 year old nose – “Alrighty – I’ve got you down for socks (everybody needs those), expensive computer speakers, a belt (mom said you need a new one), and a cd.” “I’ve got it”, she exclaimed. “I thought of something you don’t have, and you really need!” “What’s that?”, I asked? “A toupee!” she said happily. “Get out” I said.

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My daughter and I were driving home from school before Christmas break, “You know, she said, “ I really like the first day or two of school, but after that it’s all downhill”. I made a noncommittal comment. “Erick will be home soon”, she said, referring to her 23 year old brother in college. “ I wish he could go to school with me, but he’ll probably go with Ryan (her 16 year old brother) instead. He wants to make sure Ryan is getting his homework done, and not just goofing off all the time”. “ Did you talk to Erick the other night on the telephone,” I asked? “Yeah”, she said, “ he was talking to Ryan first, but Ryan got tired of Erick telling him to turn in his assignments and homework, so he handed the phone to me”, she said. “Well”, I said, “Ryan could avoid all that by just doing his homework and assignments on time” She looked out the car window for a few seconds. “ Well”, she said, “That’s one option, but it sure eats into your free time”.

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Colby had to wear braces for about 2 years. She could hardly wait for the day they were to be removed. When she came home with a big smile on her face, I said, “you look great!” “Thanks”, she said. There was a pause. “When I first got braces, Erick called me ‘metal mouth’ for a couple of months. Ryan called me ‘brace face’, and Chase just said I was even uglier. They’ll probably say the same kind of mean stuff now that my braces are off. Oh well, I’ll just take it as their way of saying I look great!” she said with her usual optimistic outlook. There was another brief pause. “Welcome to a girl’s world”, she said with a wry smile.

On a recent family trip, we drove by the house in which our son (age 19) was born. Somehow, the conversation shifted around to the embarrassing fact that my wife and I were not married at the time he was born. “Did you have to get married because of him?”, asked my daughter. “No, we got married because we loved each other, not because we had to,” said my wife. “So, what you’re saying is that you were basically a ‘W-H-O-R-E”, said my daughter.

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One vacation, we went to a lake. We rented a boat to use for skiing and tubing. It turned out to be quite difficult to climb up onto the inner tube in the water. It kept tipping and tilting, and would routinely flip just when you saw he had made it on top of it. The only person could successfully on top of the tube was our son, Chase. My daughter, as yet only observing the process, expressed her belief that it was simply advanced age and poor lack of athletic prowess that made it difficult for us to get on top of the inner tube. When her turn came, she swam straight out to the two, and attempted to pull herself up on top of it. It immediately flipped over, rendering her no longer visible beneath the up side down in her two. There was a dramatic cause. Then, quietly, you could hear her voice emanating out from under the upturned tube. “So, I guess I will be needing a little bit of help here”.

The family took a trip to Bloomington, Indiana, where my son Ryan would begin his first year of college. We ate dinner in a Greek restaurant that night. Remarking over how nice the campus was, at what a beautiful setting the town was located in, I asked my daughter and other son, Chase, if they might not be interested in eventually attending college here as well. (They were ages 12 and 13 at the time.) Chase demured, noting that it was a long way off until he would need to decide where to go for college. My daughter however, referred our attention back to the list and she had constructed several years ago of the top 10 colleges she had planned to attend (see figure). The colleges on the list had included Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, et cetera. She informed us that she had no intention of going in such a pedestrian place as Indiana University, although she did concede that the campus was quite nice. “And there isn’t a chance in the world of you ever going to one of those schools ,” said Chase. “Oh, is that right?” said Colby. “I have straight A’s don’t I?” “Yeah, in seventh grade”, said Chase. “Well, I can’t do any better than A’s,”, she said. “I’ll tell you where you’re going to college,” said Colby. “The Johnson County community college is where you’re going,” she said. This referred to a small two-year college located near our home. “Communication arts last semester… am I ringing any bells?”, she said. (Chase had not performed well in this class). There was a pause in the conversation. “What’s wrong with Johnson County community college” said Chase? “They have a great tennis court, an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor swimming pool, and a whole bunch of cool basketball courts”, he said. There was another pause. “You moron,” said Colby. “That is the Jewish Community Center.” “Whatever,” said he.

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My wife was often concerned about my eating habits (a sweet tooth), and was worried that the children would either inherit this tendency, or develop it by association. Thus, on occasion, I would hide snack foods and so as not to incur her wrath. On one occasion, I purchased some cookies and hid them in the highest possible cupboard in the kitchen. Since I am 6 foot 4 inches, and my wife is barely 5 feet tall, I thought this would be very safe hiding place. My daughter, who shared my sweet tooth, had been to the store with me and know to where I hid the cookies. I warned her not to let her mother know where they were, and promised that she could share some of them later. Since supper would be ready soon, I told her that we could not eat any of them yet. I went upstairs to do some paperwork in my office. Perhaps a half an hour later, I heard noise downstairs as my wife returned home with food she had purchased for supper. Shortly thereafter, I heard raised voices, and then the sound of my daughter crying and wailing. At the time she was about six years of age. She then appeared at my office door, tears streaming down her face. “What’s wrong honey?” I asked. “Me and my big mouth,” she said. “What are you talking about,” I asked? “Well”, she said, “I got a little bit hungry, so I pushed a chair over, climbed up, and ate some of the cookies. And then, like an idiot, and mom got home, I told her I ate them. Now I’m grounded.” “You are an idiot” I said. “Why couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut?” I can went downstairs and convinced my wife that perhaps she had been a little harsh. The grounding was eventually rescinded. In the midst of all this fuss, my wife had neglected to inquire precisely where the cookies were hidden. I forgot about them for the rest of the evening, but about noon the next day, decided that I deserved a cookie or two. My son and daughter were in the kitchen, drawing pictures at the kitchen table. I went over to the cupboard, opened it, and found an empty container of cookies. I noticed that my daughter was studiously avoiding looking at me. As I walked over towards her, she looked up and said with a broad grin, “yup, I gobbled up every one of them”.

I walked into the kitchen one evening to hear my daughter telling my wife that she had gotten the highest grade in class by 20 or 30 percentage points. Unthinkingly, I inquired as to what class this might be. “Science”, she said. “Excellent-good job” I said. “What were you studying?” “Genital herpes” she said. “Let me tell you all about it.” “No thanks”, I said. “I learned all about that stuff in medical school.” “Oh, at your age you’ve probably forgotten most of that”, she said. “Anyway, they showed us a picture of a giant wang, with a bunch of black hair-like some kind of a shrubbery-all around it. It was purple. And we learned about the urethra, the fallopian tubes, the clitoris-the tingly thing, and the cervix. Do you know what the cervix does?” She asked. “Yes, I already know that”, I said firmly. Ignoring me completely, she said, “it’s kind of a circular muscular thingy that tightens up when you’re pregnant, and keeps the baby from just whooosh -flying out of there when you’re walking around the room.” “Very useful,” I said.

A friend who is an avid hunter visited our house. He waxed on at great length about the joys of the hunting experience, producing pictures of himself and friends taken all over the world, with action shots and pictures of the “trophy” carcasses. My daughter, expressed her extreme discussed with this display as soon as he had left. I pointed out the hypocrisy of eating hamburgers and chicken sandwiches and wearing animal derivative clothing (belts, shoes) to her, to no avail. “And,” I said, “he’s a very nice person.” “He deserves to be drowned in a toilet.,” She said.

On a recent trip with the entire family, we all heard a loud noise emanating from the backseat. Immediately, shouts of, “oh no, roll down the windows!” Were heard from the boys. I glanced in the rearview mirror to see a large grin on my 13 year old daughter’s face. “Let the games begin”, she said.

When my daughter was about six years of age, she would often refuse to go to to the bathroom in a public place – stores, restaurants, etc. I simply attributed this to the “shy bladder syndrome”. However, on one occasion, she finally confessed that “I hate those automatic flush thingies on toilets – you move a little bit and WHOOSH! – they go off. For many years she would pause in front of bathroom entrances and public and loudly asked “so is this one automatic, or not?”

At about 10 or 11 years of age, my daughter went with her mother to the doctor for a routine physical exam. After taking her vital signs and performing a routine history and physical examination, the doctor spent some time going over the things a young girl might expect to occur during puberty – breast bud development, menstrual cycles, changing body shape, etc. “Now honey,” said the pediatrician, “do you have any questions for me?” “No,” said my daughter “I’d just like to go somewhere and puke.”

When my daughter was about three or four years of age, her older brother was a big fan of the television series “Seinfeld”. Presumably because of their young age, my daughter and younger son had never paid any attention to the show, nor so far as my wife and I knew, watched it. one evening during family dinner, my daughter To pushing food around on her plate, mixing it up, and generally being disruptive. Additionally, she did not appear to be eating any od her dinner. “Colby,” said my wife, “you’re not eating any of your dinner. Didn’t you and I have a long talk earlier about not eating snacks before dinner”? The discussion became somewhat more heated, as my wife became increasingly irritated with her stubborn daughter. Suddenly, my daughter jumped up one to her chair, bringing her face up to about the level of my wife’s, had she been standing. “Do you want a piece of me, Lady”, said Colby? “I’ll drop you like a bag of dirt!”

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Perhaps as a result of global warming, it was unseasonably hot one summer. My wife, while shopping, had purchased a white long billed cap, and a white “tennis outfit” to wear. A few days later, we were all preparing to go to the awards dinner for my daughter’s softball team. After taking a shower, my wife your walked into the living room wearing her new outfit. My daughter looked at her and with teenage disdain, said, “Is there some reason you decided to go to this dressed as an egg?” she said.

When my son Ryan was about three or four years of age, I had just come out of the shower and Edwin shaving in front to owe the mere in our bathroom. The door burst open and, and he walked in. Self-consciously, I immediately grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself. He proceeded to grab a toothpaste container, and started to leave the room. At the door, he stopped and turned. “Dad,” he said, “how come you have such a huge pee-pee?” A beaming with inner pride, I tried to explain. “Well,” I said, “as you get older you get bigger. You get taller, your legs get longer, and every part of your body grows.” Seemingly satisfied with this spur of the moment, perfectly benign explanation, he turned to leave. Without a trace of humor, he said, “I guess your butt must get a lot bigger too.” My mood was ruined.

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Enough white folks around here

The kid

Don’t need a haircut in a million years

The monocle



Aug 11, 2006 – 51 Photos

Are smart people jerks ?

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Are smart people jerks?

Albert Einstein is generally remembered as a “warm and fuzzy”, congenial teddy bear of a man, who also happened to be an off the charts genius. The popular perception of the “absent minded Professor” also fits this stereotype. However, another stereotype is that of the autistic, aloof, introverted, socially inept but brilliant geek who generally dislikes people, and avoids contact with them. Some studies of “techies” have confirmed a high incidence of Asperger’s syndrome, suggesting that perhaps the latter stereotype is more apt to be correct.

It has long been my experience that, at least in the world of surgery, a “nice” surgeon would have a relatively equal likelihood of being “good”: i.e., technically skilled, well read, efficient, and generally skillful. However, surgeons who most people would consider “jerks” i.e. unfriendly, short tempered, and generally lacking a good bedside manner, have a much higher chance of being “good surgeons”. The rationale proffered for this is that if an incompetent surgeon is a pleasant fellow; nice, easy to get along with, well liked, then his or her incompetence will be “put up with” or at least tolerated by associates, underlings, et cetera. However, if a generally nasty person is also incompetent; coworkers, associates, underlings, will have a much lower threshold for tolerating the person, and would be likely to complain, censure, etc. this individual. Although obvious, this is not an argument in favor of surgeons or anyone else acting like a jerk. Recalling basic logic 101, if 99% of people who are 6’5″ tall are men, it does not follow that all men are 6’5″ tall.

An alternative explanation was recently noted in an article about extremely high IQ individuals. The article pointed out that, if the average IQs is 100 “by definition”, and a mildly retarded person (IQ of 75 to 80) interact for long periods of time, the person of average intelligence is likely to become frustrated, and to not have much in common with the mildly retarded individual. This is not to say that the person of average intelligence would have some underlying prejudice against the other person, or would necessarily treat them badly. The idea is simply that a person of average intelligence, if forced to interact 8 to 12 hours a day with people who were mildly to moderately retarded, would likely find it in a difficult and frustrating experience. Therefore, if a person with an IQ of 150 – 160 is exposed on a daily basis to “normal” people (IQ of 100 – 120) they also would likely find it a difficult and frustrating experience, since the difference between their level of intelligence and normal people, and the difference between the normals and retarded individuals (at least in terms of IQ points – a debatable and hotly contested topic) is similar. This argument is used to explain the putative antisocial personality characteristics of the introverted intelligentsia.

Expertise

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Interesting Sci Am article on becoming an expert. Much of the available data is based on the study of chess grandmasters (GM) – the ‘fruit fly’ of this arena.
” I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one.” (Jose Capablanca, chess GM from early 1900′s) Just the first few seconds of thought separates the newbie from the expert. Article quote (AQ) – “This rapid, knowledge-guided perception, sometimes called apperception, can be seen in experts in other fields as well. Just as a master can recall all the moves in a game he has played, socan an accomplished musician often reconstruct the score to a sonataheard just once. And just as the chess master often finds the best movein a flash, an expert physician can sometimes make an accuratediagnosis within moments of laying eyes on a patient.”

“Alfred Binet, the co-inventor of the first intelligence test, askedchess masters to describe how they played such games. He began with thehypothesis that they achieved an almost photographic image of theboard, but he soon concluded that the visualization was much moreabstract. He does not have to remember every detail at all times, because he canreconstruct any particular detail whenever he wishes by tapping awell-organized system of connections.”

The key appears to be ‘possession of such intricately structured knowledge‘. In studying GM vs Masters – they analyzed about the same number of moves ahead, but the GM’s appeared to ‘look at’ better moves, not more. “a weaker player may calculate for half an hour, often looking manymoves ahead, yet miss the right continuation, whereas a grandmastersees the move immediately, without consciously analyzing anything atall. Other fields – computer programming, bridge, music – have shown similar results, leading to the conclusion:”experts rely more on structured knowledge than on analysis“. Reconstruction of chess positions by GM was much better when the positions ‘made sense’ – ie, were non-random positions. This is felt to be due to ‘chunking’ – use of meaningful patterns. There are some questions about this theory’s ability to explain some aspects of expertise: specifically, the ability of experts to perform well with distractions / blindfolds (in chess example). Also “… brain-imaging studies done in 2001 at the University of Konstanz inGermany provide support for the theory by showing that expert chessplayers activate long-term memory much more than novices do.”

“By measuring the time it takes to commit a new chunk to memory and thenumber of hours a player must study chess before reaching grandmasterstrength, Simon estimated that a typical grandmaster has access toroughly 50,000 to 100,000 chunks of chess information. A grandmastercan retrieve any of these chunks from memory simply by looking at achess position, in the same way that most native English speakers canrecite the poem “Mary had a little lamb” after hearing just the firstfew words.”

The 10 year rule

“The one thing that all expertise theorists agree on is that it takesenormous effort to build these structures in the mind. Simon coined apsychological law of his own, the 10-year rule, which states that ittakes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field.”

Effortful study

“Ericsson argues that what matters is not experience per se but”effortful study,” which entails continually tackling challenges thatlie just beyond one’s competence. That is why it is possible forenthusiasts to spend tens of thousands of hours playing chess or golfor a musical instrument without ever advancing beyond the amateur leveland why a properly trained student can overtake them in a relativelyshort time. It is interesting to note that time spent playing chess,even in tournaments, appears to contribute less than such study to aplayer’s progress; the main training value of such games is to point upweaknesses for future study.” This last bit is used to explain why the learning curve is steep at first for novices – ie you learn quickly . You then reach an acceptable level of performance, and perform more ‘automatically’, with little or no improvement
Nature v Nuture

“Although nobody has yet been able to predict who will become a greatexpert in any field, a notable experiment has shown the possibility ofdeliberately creating one. László Polgár, an educator in Hungary,homeschooled his three daughters in chess, assigning as much as sixhours of work a day, producing one international master and twograndmasters–the strongest chess-playing siblings in history. Theyoungest Polgár, 30-year-old Judit, is now ranked 14th in the world. The Polgár experiment proved two things: that grandmasters can bereared and that women can be grandmasters. It is no coincidence thatthe incidence of chess prodigies multiplied after László Polgárpublished a book on chess education. The number of musical prodigiesunderwent a similar increase after Mozart’s father did the equivalenttwo centuries earlier.”
The experts conclude that “motivation appears to be a more important factor than innate ability. The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts aremade, not born. What is more, the demonstrated ability to turn a childquickly into an expert–in chess, music and a host of othersubjects–sets a clear challenge before the schools.”

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: The Expert Mind — [ PSYCHOLOGY AND BRAIN SCIENCE ] — Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well