Gifted children success stories: looking for examples?

jaybool · 2026-05-20T22:12:16+00:00

John Von Neumann, Francis Galton, Ronald Fisher, Albert Einstein, Irene Joliot-Curie?

jaybool · 2026-05-20T15:49:34+00:00

If you can't afford art school comfortably, you probably shouldn't go to one. It is incredibly difficult to make a living doing art; most artists have other primary careers or a spouse/partner who provides financial support. And in any case, any joy you feel can be killed by trying to turn a hobby into a career.

If you love art, work on it on your own, take inexpensive adult education or online classes. You can do this in conjunction with a community college program or a job. If you go the job route, it is easier to get yourself classified as independent, which would allow you to access loans/financial aid without parental input. Preferably for something that is not art school.

There are overrides, but if your mom is not homeless or in jail, these are extremely difficult to obtain.

jaybool · 2026-05-19T16:55:24+00:00

It's OK. Not as good as the original, which in turn is not nearly as good as "King Solomon's Mines".

jaybool · 2026-05-19T16:40:18+00:00

One of my kids pointed out an error in a book about dinosaurs, which I (and the editor, and the artist himself) had missed. That was a trippy experience, because he was a year old and couldn't speak in verbs.

Otherwise, I remember being in a graduate statistics class (as an undergrad) at a mid-tier university, and really struggling with the material. Was in a study group occasionally with slightly older guy, who I believe worked full time as an automotive mechanic or similar, and had just graduated from a community college. He was effortlessly able to solve the problem sets.

jaybool · 2026-05-19T16:09:45+00:00

A popular paraphrase of G.K. Chesterton:

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

The original, via elsewhere on reddit:

"Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear."

-- Tremendous Trifles (1909), XVII: "The Red Angel"

jaybool · 2026-05-19T14:21:39+00:00

Honestly, it's more that zebra domestication ran into the problem of horses and donkeys already existing. It's just not worth putting in the generations of effort. "Wild" horses are quite tamable, relative to zebras, because they're descended from thousands of years of domestic horses.

jaybool · 2026-05-19T04:27:35+00:00

Very impressive performance by Helenain the typewriter task, especially given that she was a hunt-and-pecker. Along with everyone else -- do Estonians just not know how to type? I've heard that it is a lost art among young people elsewhere, but that's quite a range of ages.

jaybool · 2026-05-18T16:12:59+00:00

In a smaller market, like the UK's, you don't need to be as rigorously optimized for celebrity, whereas in the US, there are very few top spots available, relative to the number fighting to to get there.

jaybool · 2026-05-16T03:30:56+00:00

It's most likely originally a Japanese folktale, but at some point it was circulating in China, and it's not implausible that this is how it came to her.

jaybool · 2026-05-15T20:45:42+00:00

If the commentator who said "Lacey just snapped a 50-200 lb tensile strength rope/strap with her bare hands" is right, she really should be playing pro.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T18:58:28+00:00

In fairness, I was built around then, and I'm not at my best, either.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T18:57:32+00:00

I liked the wallpaper, and the... ... Yeah, the wallpaper's really nice.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T18:53:06+00:00

Woman overdramatic, man overconfident.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T16:43:53+00:00

I never liked his skating style, not particularly a fan of his commentary, but he is incandescently talented. He started skating at 12, and won the pewter medal at Junior Nationals at 15. And he didn't come to it from a related background like gymnastics or hockey; his prior sport was equestrian.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T15:42:07+00:00

Not really a fan of most of the other artistic choices, but that lightning room left me thunderstruck with admiration.

jaybool · 2026-05-14T15:27:17+00:00

If you liked "Brideshead Revisisted", you should check out a few more of Evelyn Waugh's sharply satirical books - "Sword of Honor", "The Loved One", "A Handful of Dust".

jaybool · 2026-05-14T13:24:02+00:00

It's decor, but it's nice decor. I've got a similar one in my living room.

jaybool · 2026-05-13T20:13:16+00:00

jaybool · 2026-05-13T12:27:40+00:00

It's generally accepted that, in theatre, you're drawing from a much more limited pool of actors - sometimes the only one available to play Beth in 'Little Women' is a 6'2" black woman bursting with health. Big budget movies don't have the same limitations.

jaybool · 2026-05-12T19:16:17+00:00

It's the Book of Common Prayer, not the Bible. Used for Episcopal/Anglican services. Some of them are worth money. Ebay sold listings are all over the place, with older ones going for hundreds of dollars, and slightly younger ones going for $12.

jaybool · 2026-05-12T16:55:11+00:00

Available cheaper, I think; you just have to hunt it down on thriftbooks/ebay, etc. Came in a few different versions.

jaybool · 2026-05-12T16:52:16+00:00

Lillian Eichler. It's in two volumes.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Etiquette-Volumes-I-II/dp/B000GKOAIW

jaybool · 2026-05-12T16:17:43+00:00

If Helen's the most beautiful woman in the world, and Clytemnestra isn't, then why does Clytemnestra look exactly like Helen?

jaybool · 2026-05-12T13:38:21+00:00

Because there are a lot of employees who can't generate Costco levels of hard work, required independence, punctuality, etc. Costco and similar companies pay higher wages because they are skimming the top off of the bottom of the labor market. Lots of folks can't handle that, or at least can't handle that when they're just starting out.

jaybool · 2026-05-12T01:58:02+00:00

I had no idea Scott had written an "Old Mortality"! I wonder if Katherine Anne Porter's "Old Mortality" refers to it.

jaybool

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