<story><title>Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-from-a-45-year-study-of-super-smart-children/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pas</author><text>Knowing a few friends and other acquaintances with PhDs, all they have common is endurance and focus. They were not exceptionally creative, or apparently breathtakingly genius.&lt;p&gt;And I guess that&amp;#x27;s why Google et al. likes to hire PhDs. They can take all kinds of shit, and endure. Get to the bottom of those problems even in the face of internal politics&amp;#x2F;bureaucracy.</text></item><item><author>squigs25</author><text>Interesting read, but I have one major qualm about this.&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a confirmatory bias among the academic community that a measure of intellectual success can be found in the percentage of individuals who earn a PhD. Sure, it&amp;#x27;s true that you need to be reasonably smart to earn a PhD, but I think that someone can have a lot of intellectual success (potentially just as much or maybe more) if they don&amp;#x27;t earn a PhD.&lt;p&gt;I think you could even argue that, depending on the field of study, a PhD is the &amp;quot;easy&amp;quot; route for someone who is intellectually gifted - it&amp;#x27;s a simply a continuation of what you have been doing. I would be more impressed by the intellectual who not only realizes that they can conduct their own independent research, but also has the creativity to come up with a use case that can improve and contribute to the world (and presumably, make a living doing so).&lt;p&gt;My point here is that, given two gifted cohorts, one which has a 45% PhD graduation rate and one which has a 50% PhD graduation rate, I don&amp;#x27;t know that you can conclusively say that one is more gifted than the other without looking at other metrics associated with intellectual accomplishment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pmoriarty</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Godlike genius.. Godlike nothing! Sticking to it is the genius! I&amp;#x27;ve failed my way to success.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  -- Thomas Edison
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lives solely in my tenacity.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  -- Louis Pasteur
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Men give me credit for genius; but all the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject on hand I study it profoundly.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  -- Alexander Hamilton&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-from-a-45-year-study-of-super-smart-children/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pas</author><text>Knowing a few friends and other acquaintances with PhDs, all they have common is endurance and focus. They were not exceptionally creative, or apparently breathtakingly genius.&lt;p&gt;And I guess that&amp;#x27;s why Google et al. likes to hire PhDs. They can take all kinds of shit, and endure. Get to the bottom of those problems even in the face of internal politics&amp;#x2F;bureaucracy.</text></item><item><author>squigs25</author><text>Interesting read, but I have one major qualm about this.&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a confirmatory bias among the academic community that a measure of intellectual success can be found in the percentage of individuals who earn a PhD. Sure, it&amp;#x27;s true that you need to be reasonably smart to earn a PhD, but I think that someone can have a lot of intellectual success (potentially just as much or maybe more) if they don&amp;#x27;t earn a PhD.&lt;p&gt;I think you could even argue that, depending on the field of study, a PhD is the &amp;quot;easy&amp;quot; route for someone who is intellectually gifted - it&amp;#x27;s a simply a continuation of what you have been doing. I would be more impressed by the intellectual who not only realizes that they can conduct their own independent research, but also has the creativity to come up with a use case that can improve and contribute to the world (and presumably, make a living doing so).&lt;p&gt;My point here is that, given two gifted cohorts, one which has a 45% PhD graduation rate and one which has a 50% PhD graduation rate, I don&amp;#x27;t know that you can conclusively say that one is more gifted than the other without looking at other metrics associated with intellectual accomplishment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wrp</author><text>I know a Chemistry professor whose favorite remark on this is, &amp;quot;A PhD is a badge of endurance, not intelligence.&amp;quot;</text></comment>