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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31922 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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Farrow is an example of an overhyped elite protégé who way failed to live up to his promise. He wrote this books and articles that although well-researched and well-reviewed, had no impact on anything, including his articles about Trump. This is similar to all those trump bombshells and exposés by NYTs, New Yorker, etc. from 2015-2020 that were supposed to prove Trump's fraud regarding taxes, casino losses, or Russian collusion, which also went nowhere. Even the Weinstein story was broken by the NYTs, but Farrow wrote an important book and article about it. It's hard to make a difference, even if you are as smart , hard-working, and talented, and well-connected as someone like Farrow. Even the robert moses legacy is greatly inflated. He worked on some projects in the 60s and 70s, but forgotten/irreverent now too.

regarding Farrow...graduated high school at 11..wtf. Down below we were taking about SBF's IQ..that blows him out of the water.

graduated high school at 11

It feels like the average IQ 130 person could master the necessary course work at age 11. This says more about their parents then anything.

Maybe, but it's also a matter of having the drive to actually do that, which is the rarer thing because it goes against basically all incentive.

I was on track to do something similar in schooling and then I sort of figured out "hang on, all this time the reward for working hard, excelling and finishing tasks early has just been more work" and that I wouldn't be, say, set free to do as I pleased, I would just be given more expectations to meet. So I thought instead I could just coast and do nothing but dick around and do what I want for a couple years until the work required actually caught up with my ability level.

And I still defend that as the obvious choice. If you want the smart kids to excel, you have to actually reward them by giving them something they actually want for doing it. If they finish your worksheet that was supposed to take 45 minutes in 15, don't just hand them another worksheet, all you're teaching them that higher ability just means you're expected to do more and they will stop trying because of it.

"To whom much is given, much will be expected" - Luke 12:47-48

"The one accusation we feared was to be suspected of ability. Ability was like a mortgage on you that you could never pay off." - Atlas Shrugged

If they finish your worksheet that was supposed to take 45 minutes in 15, don't just hand them another worksheet, all you're teaching them that higher ability just means you're expected to do more and they will stop trying because of it.

Sounds like a valuable lesson, the one incorporated in the adage "The reward for a job well-done is a harder job".

I certainly couldn't, I just wasn't developed enough at that age. I don't think I was a uniquely late bloomer among the gifted kids either.

Graduating HS at 11 is impressive regardless of support (unless there is cheating), imo. It might also say more about how quickly someone developed than how intelligent they are..

Maybe, but still quite impressive. Even high-IQ Asian kids plus 'tiger mom' parenting seldom gets those kind of outcomes. This is closer to Terrance Tao levels of preciousness, than just 130 IQ plus aggressive parenting.

Probably most parents sensibly recognize that this would be terrible for a child's development.

It's also nowhere close to Tao levels. Tao scored a 760 on the SAT at age 8. So figure he probably could have gotten the score of a typical high school graduate at age 6 or something.

It's possible Mr. Farrow scored almost as well, maybe at age 10. still way better than your typical 130 IQ smart kid.

If so, I agree. If.

Even the robert moses legacy is greatly inflated. He worked on some projects in the 60s and 70s, but forgotten/irreverent now too.

Have you read any of Robert Caro's work?

You need to read it to appreciate just how much the shape of New York City today owes to Robert Moses. His impact was a lot more than "some projects in the 60s and 70s."

Have you read any of Robert Caro's work?

No, but in my defense the book is 1300 pages...

And his four-volume (and not finished yet!) biography of Lyndon Johnson is even longer. But worth it.

If you've owned a car in the metro-NYC area, hearing that list of bridges and parkways can't help but send chills down your spine. That's how you navigate anywhere between New Jersey and Connecticut, and on Long Island the things he built are the basis of Nassau and Suffolk counties. If you don't live or drive in the NYC metro, it probably all seems rather small.

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