The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator 163
An anonymous reader writes "A lot of us grew up tinkering with electronics and cherishing the one or two reference books we could find that explained exactly what we wanted to know. Nowadays, with internet access widely available and online educational materials coming into their own, we're going to see a lot more kindred spirits coming out of places all over the globe. The NY Times has a story about one such, a lad from Mongolia who hacked together complex sensors at the age of 16 and was one of the 0.2% of students to get a perfect score on MIT's first Massive Open Online Course. From the article: 'Battushig, playing the role of the car, moved into the sensor's path to show me how it worked, but it was clear he was not entirely satisfied with his design. "The use of the long wires is very inconvenient for my users," he said, almost apologetically, clasping his hands together in emphasis. He realized that contractors would be reluctant to install the siren in other buildings if they had to deal with cumbersome wiring, so he was developing a wireless version. ... Battushig has the round cheeks of a young boy, but he is not your typical teenager. He hasn't read Harry Potter ("What will I learn from that?") and doesn't like listening to music (when a friend saw him wearing headphones, he couldn't believe it; it turned out Battushig was preparing for the SAT). His projects are what make him happy. "In electrical engineering, there is no limit," he said.'"
Re:Nothing ever comes of these "child geniuses" (Score:4, Insightful)
You're absolutely right. I was a childhood genius and now look at me. I'm posting on /.
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Harry Potter? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, it really says something about the mentality of the reporter..."you're young therefore you read Harry Potter." WTF? These are not universal values, they are just YOUR values from inside the bubble.
Hurrah for his response, by the way. Stick it to 'em.
Re:Nothing ever comes of these "child geniuses" (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that it's impossible to track the lives of all these individuals how do you know how they turn out later in life? Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean they're not doing significant work.
The problem with you, and most people for that matter, is that they've been educated by Hollywood to expect that everything important must be immersed in fanfare and drama. Most of it goes unnoticed until one day; holy shit, we're all driving cars, or browsing the internet or buried in our smartphones. The vast majority of human progress has been a very deliberate and iterative process.
But you unfortunately, in your mind this kid will be a failure because he'll never live up to your Iron Man-fueled fantasies.
Re:ignorant and arrogant (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:limits (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly what does Justin Beiber have to do with music? I refer to him as an example of pop culture. Yes, I realize he is marketed as having something to do with music, but that's quite questionable.
Re:Nothing ever comes of these "child geniuses" (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say you missed the point then. You accuse dryriver of needing Hollywood-fueled fanfare and drama, when in fact dryriver was questioning the need to play the "child genius" card every time a young person does something exceptional. That means nothing without some sort of followup so the second half of the story is told, hopefully involving living up to the early promise.
Really bad choice of article quote (Score:4, Insightful)
From the article: 'Battushig, playing the role of the car
Huh? What car?
moved into the sensor's path to show me how it worked
How what worked?
"The use of the long wires is very inconvenient for my users,"
Well, obviously.
He realized that contractors would be reluctant to install the siren in other buildings
What siren?
TL;DR: Next time, pick a paragraph from the article that makes sense in isolation.