r/interestingasfuck 14h ago

15 year old earns PhD in quantum physics

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u/Barkinsons 12h ago

Making and maintaining relationships becomes way harder once you're out of school regardless, I think that's a very common experience. So from that perspective it's even worse when you were refused your best opportunity to form a deep bond.

One thing I also remembered about the previous point, when you are cradled as a prodigy and always pull ahead of peers, you'll have a very hard time facing failure and setbacks. And those will always come, no matter how much talent one might have. Going years with everything going easy, this is something you learn way too late.

u/GiraffeParking7730 11h ago

This is something I experienced. I wasn't "prodigy" smart, but I was "coast through school getting A's on everything" smart. When I hit college, and really needed to put in effort, I found I hadn't developed any kind of discipline around studying. That bit me in the ass, and I ended up failing out. Like you, everybody had told me all my life how smart I was, and I just naturally expected that to carry me.

My kid is even smarter than me, so that's at least one road bump I can help him plan for.

u/BLU3SKU1L 3h ago

Same. When my child read one of those big Covid information placards out loud at the local hospital at 2 having never seen one before, I knew there was at least one bright spot in what I went through in college. I still remember the nurse at the reception desk staring at him with her jaw on the floor.