Comments on: The Rise and Fall of William J. Sidis https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/ Fascinating true stories from science, history, and psychology since 2005 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:06:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 By: The big 5 https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-74667 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:06:19 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-74667 Harry wrote: “The 250 IQ for the unfortunate Sidis reported by one psychologist is nonsense.” And it is true. The “measurement” of his IQ to be between 250 and 300 is pure manure. Probably smarter than Einstein though, he is highly overrated as well. Look into Euler, Maxwell, Newton, Tesla and so on. True geniuses.

]]> By: Jake McBreak https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-74504 Thu, 29 Sep 2022 21:48:55 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-74504 jfaughman’s comment above refers to Sidis’s “prodigality”. That term means wasteful excessive spending, such as the prodigal son in the Bible. Sidis was a prodigy, meaning a young person with exceptional qualities, but he was never accused of being prodigal.

]]> By: Mr.Bill https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-73891 Wed, 28 Jul 2021 17:26:39 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-73891 I agree with Jarvis, even though Mr.Sidis grew up in a very interesting time period in America, the fact of his abilities and the potential benefit to mankind was never really established as being of note, it’s interesting no reporter ever picked up on this before and made an article of interest for all to read. On October 1st, 1946 Mensa was established in Oxford, UK, to bad it wasn’t earlier and could meet up with Sidis, who knows what could have come out of such a meeting of the minds there.

]]> By: JarvisLoop https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-73139 Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:25:59 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-73139 Highly odd that I had never heard of this man until now.

Thanks for the article!

]]> By: Kendall https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-72528 Mon, 30 Jul 2018 10:13:17 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-72528 Sad it’s considered “squandered” only viewed from the “What can you do for society” point of view. “What can you do for us.. What can you do? entertain me with your brilliance monkey… Man people are jerks. His parents included.

]]> By: Harry https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-72264 Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:54:24 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-72264 In HJ Eysenk’s 1962 book “Know your own IQ” he emphasizes the strict conditions under which IQ tests should be taken to be valid. In the scores for the 6 IQ tests in his book he notes that “too much reliance should not placed on” scores above 130. Also the term IQ applies to the ratio of chronological to mental age. Unless modified, and can they be, it cannot be applied over the age of 12-15 years as mental ability only increases linearly up to ~15 years. The story is very interesting and illustrates the complex relation between ability and social success. The 250 IQ for the unfortunate Sedis reported by one psychologist is nonsense. MENSA is a fake!

]]> By: S https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-72026 Tue, 21 Mar 2017 09:38:00 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-72026 Just goes to show there are more valuable things in life than IQ…

]]> By: Adam https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-40062 Wed, 21 Oct 2015 19:10:25 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-40062 The Book “Notes on the Collection of Streetcar Transfers” seems quite intriguing to me. Not for the fact that I would be interested in collecting but more of a treasure hunt for some secret information. Seems like a very odd and mundane hobby for an intellectual. After reading through some of the text I feel like it may elude to more of a clue to a contribution to society. Information hidden away for a length of time only for someone very cunning to discover. It would make sense for it to remain hidden as he did not want to incur any more spotlight or attention. If one could track his street car transfers it may draw something on a map or maybe be a sequence or decode some information. It also seems oddly written that he wants you to read the introduction then start from the end and read backwards through the book.

]]> By: john https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-39915 Sat, 01 Aug 2015 16:10:59 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-39915 Think you guys aren’t seeing how insane this is if true:

IQ///
80=retard
100=average
120=university graduate
140=standard genius
160=einstein
180=super genius
200=99.9999% super-super genius

Current highest is somewhere between 190-210.

And his was possibly 300! That is the difference between a retard and an average person 5x over in comparison to the super super genius. Nearly double Einstein.

Now I know; consider it like a fight or a sport. The strongest or most gifted/fast/strong athlete will not always win when facing against an opponent with heart/creativity/intellect/etc — this is why a 160 IQ einstein can do things 180+ IQs never have.

But you guys are overlooking the amount of raw computational power of his brain. 300 seems so incredibly high that it must be exaggerated.

]]> By: william j sidis https://www.damninteresting.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-william-j-sidis/#comment-39394 Sun, 09 Nov 2014 23:54:55 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=715#comment-39394 How do lesser minds dare criticize his “lack of contribution” to society? He might have in turn criticized a society too materialistic and dull to understand his subtle contributions – did he not baffle Harvard audiences at an early age? Or perhaps he would have been stymied by the absurdity of a human being contributing anything, being barely larger or longer lived than a gnat in the grand scheme of things. Or baffled by the idea of an imaginary “society” that can somehow use such “contributions”, realizing that a real, lasting, meaningful, balanced civilization is something that may develop in the future, but certainly has not come into existence yet.

Perhaps he was so much separate from the lesser lemmings that they did not have the capacity to benefit from his superior intellect. Though, especially in our computer age, the value of memorizing languages or theorems can be seen for what it is – mere data.

Personally I tend to believe that the intelligence of all humans is more or less equal, its what you do with it that counts. The brain is just a bunch of cells, if you exercise those cells learning languages or working math problems, you are going to get a different result than if you spend your time alternating between pounding a hammer and drinking lots of alcohol. But starting intellect is about the same. Just as most humans start life with four limbs, two eyes, etc, and are usually between 5 and 6 feet tall as adults, so most humans start with more or less the same brain, on average. Here’s the kicker: Who can judge what is a valuable use of time, and what is a waste? True story: One guy in Ohio invented both leaded gasoline and CFC’s. The idiots of the press and many supposedly less idiotic persons lauded him as a genius during his lifetime, it was only later discovered that these inventions were very, very bad things.

Perhaps Sedis’ greatest contribution was that he withdrew from society, got a boring, repetitive job, and did not use his intellect to conjure up some technological demon from hell that would make the hydrogen bomb look like a water balloon.

Maybe when you reach the nth dimensional spacetime destination of perfect intelligence, you discover that the hermit’s cave is the best place to be.

wjs

]]>