[oonis]

I was actually one of those incredibly young kids to finish school, and this right here scares me. Nothing good came from the rush other than some local publicity for a few months. I think it crippled my chances long term social skills, and still going to therapy to try and catch up in any non-academic sense.

[surewhynat]

Like anything else, social skills just takes practice. A lot of practice. I've read probably over a hundred books on self-help, sales, influence, social skills of all sorts. Ultimately the conclusion is that meeting people and socializing can be scary, but, it's an irrational fear it gets better and easier with practice. It's less about being right or saying the right thing all the time, and more about having a quick reaction to what to say and connect with people on an emotional level. It is all about practice. If you work at a company that has a sales team and you ever wonder how they're so good at being witty, funny, or being liked, just remember that it took them a lot of practice. They're probably on the phone all day long, and I can guarantee you that for most of them it was really hard at first too. Eventually you just get better with people because your brain will adapt, so just put yourself out there.

[tw04]

I think you're grossly underestimating the nuances of human interaction that are developed from ages 2-10. I can tell you first hand watching a friends kid who was home schooled trying to interact with his public school peers that they are like a fish out of water. To suggest as an adult you just need "dive in" to figure out social cue's is... unfairly simplified.

Can you potentially figure it out over a long period of time if you happen to hook up with some folks that are very understanding and tolerant of "odd" behavior? Sure... but you're talking years and years and years of interaction to recoup those lost social skills.

[invalidOrTaken]

"It's easy, just use genetic programming."

Not so easy for the one under selection!

[Invictus0]

Yes, literally years of practice that Laurent is completely missing out on. Even with all those years of practice, lots of people come out of school unable to socialize properly.

[LeftHandPath]

I'm not on quite the same level, but I was definitely quick enough to skip a few grades. Thankfully my parent's didn't let me - I wanted to at the time, but to be honest, the importance of social wellness is drastically understated by academic community.

Humans are animals, and social animals at that. If we don't give our brains social release, we're going to struggle.

[hkmurakami]

I suppose that the tradeoff here is that the child is bored in class right? Curious how you handled the lack of academic challenge given that you were the one who wanted to proactively move up (vs Parents wanting to move their kid up)

[ACow_Adonis]

Anecdote: I took responsibility for my own education.

And by that I mean quite literally I had the epiphany that I was ahead of my peers/some teachers when I entered high school (i remember it was the first time I realised they were ranking us and that we were supposed to be competing for grades... hadn't received any/paid attention to them until then), and so made a vow (child's/ adolescent minds are funny like that) that i would do whatever it takes to learn the truth about things irrespective of this social system/mandate to keep going to school.

Its worked out for me in the long run, but that's partly because I'm deeply interested in the social sciences and so was spending so much time thinking about how these strange humans act and what I can do to learn from their behaviour (still do and always will feel like an alien/man trapped in an asylum though).

At the time though, it resulted in all kinds of social problems. I just stopped doing some assignments + homework. I failed math, then simultaneously topped the grade on the national standardised test they made us take, resulting in a meeting with the school/my parents. I called the math teacher stupid, thinking the adults would listen/care to listen to my words. I was accused of plagiarism in one of my English classes and received a failing grade for that until another meeting: the evidence? Just a general feeling that it was 'too good for someone like me, so someone else must have written it'. I got on fine enough with my peers, it was largely the irrational adult world I couldn't understand at the time.

They tried putting me in gifted programs occasionally, but I viewed (accurately imo) that the children in them were social climbers rather than gifted/smart, so I didn't get along with the other kids in them at all (not as in hostile, as in I just found them incredibly boring people and the entire experience incredibly boring).

In summary, I continued to have social problems and continued this pattern of non attendance, non completion, failure, and randomly top out some metric.

I made it to university where I was promised it would be more intellectual: it wasn't, and my perception there was that it was even more authoritarian/social and about parroting back what the lecturers wanted to hear and doing the admin dance rather than actual intellectual inquiry. I had some good lecturers, but some of the were on another planet of dumb (mainly due to the specialisation heirachy of the university system: even today the idea that you could have knowledge/expertise from more than one field hurts brains). I eventually graduated with a similar pattern of grades, but stopped attending any lectures by the end of it and regularly handed in my assignments late (due, fundamentally, to the mental drudgery of doing them and the absolute inanity of the questions/formats).

My actual goal was a success though: I spent huge amounts of my spare time reading/ studying/discussing things of my own volition, and all I can say is thank GOD I was born just in time for the internet to arrive as I hit adolescence or I think that would have been the end of me. I consider myself learned, mature and happy now. I have a family, and, currently, a job where people listen to me (and outside of silicon valley, a wage considered high, plus I live exactly where I want with access to learning materials still).

It left me deeply distrustful of formal education systems and social institutions (I think justifiably/accurately).

Someone without my ability to learn/observe/pick up on social cues would have been chewed up and spat out though once they reached the real world assuming dad isn't giving them a job, and I would say it's been far from smooth sailing even for me (80% of my life is still pretending I'm 'dumber' than I really am, even though I'm now partly looked up to as an authority in my line of work, and smiling/trying to get along with everyone and the social system).

Protip for those following after: 80% of human social interaction is comprised of recognising who has authority/status, smiling, and avoiding open conflict :p everything also makes a lot more sense when you realise truth doesn't rate as an ongoing concern in most human's lives (but being viewed as 'socially correct' is extremely important).

[dorchadas]

Yep, I was the same way. The school and my parents wouldn't let me, even though I easily could have skipped a few grades. Likewise, I had a chance to go to an academy in my state that basically lets you start college early. You go live on campus, take college classes with other juniors and seniors, etc. I have to say it was just as well that I didn't do that either. I certainly experienced an outgrowth of social experience those last two years, and became, in my own words, a lot more "normal." And it really took some good friends it had taken me a few years to make and a teacher to push me, something I would've never developed if I had skipped through grades.

[commandlinefan]

I wasn't incredibly young, but I had completed a two-year degree by the time I was 16. It hasn't benefited me in any way - if anything, it might have hurt me a bit since my grades might have been (might...) a bit higher if I'd just gone to high school and started college at 18 like everybody else.

[shantly]

I'm not even that smart—tested into gifted programs by the skin of my teeth—and I'm just about certain I could have completed a 2-year degree in some mid-difficulty subject area by no later than 18—maybe as young as 16—if I'd found a way to get my GED over a Summer or something else that'd mark me as "college ready", applied, and been accepted to a community college.

I didn't try to do it because I didn't understand the relative difficulty of high school and (your average non-elite) college, at the time, though. High school eats so much time that college ended up feeling much easier, and the course work for subject areas outside the harder end of STEM wasn't a bit tougher than that of high school (the dividing line is essentially "is any of the math required more difficult than Calc 1?"). I wasn't expecting the first couple years of a 4-year degree to often fail to go past material we'd covered in 8th grade (looking at you, Psych. 101 requirement). I just expected it to be much harder than it actually was, since I gathered that's how it's supposed to be.

[toberej]

Same, entered college at 14. My social skills were wack, was terrible at public speaking, very socially awkward. Was in my room playing Dota 2 for the first 2 years. I'm just finished up at 19 and I feel more mature and understand why so many universities didn't want to accept me at my age.

However, I think it all worked out, as long as parents make provisions for social adjustment things can work out okay. I don't know about 9 though, seems tough, i literally could not imagine it because college was a lot more than just studying. Especially since I was in a cognitive science not like a hard STEM, lots of social interaction and open ended questions.

[foobiekr]

I went to university at 16. It was like a wonderful playground, so many subjects and areas and it was a great time. I ended up liking it so much, I spent 9 years there drifting to 300+ credits :-b

I cannot imagine going at 14. That must have been pretty weird. At 16 I was fine and the biggest issue was the dating and (underage) drinking mismatch.

For me going at 16 was an incredible relief. I was incredibly, incredibly bored and unchallenged in school until that point. I wish there wasn't such a stigma about it because I imagine there are lots of other people who had the same level of terrible frustration.

[godelski]

> I spent 9 years there drifting to 300+ credits

This sounds expensive

[foobiekr]

I supported my educational habits working as a network and system administrator. That route is now screwed by universities outsourcing these tasks.

There's a HN posting in why there is such a dearth of technical support hires in the modern era and it starts with killing the pipeline and ends with eviscerating the entire career in the outsourcing binge of the early 2000s...

[text_exch]

Sounds like he got a scholarship.

[commandlinefan]

or three.

[duxup]

Socialization is an education too and it takes as long as real education or longer.

I can't imagine isolating a child like that at a university.

It's not the same socialization as with your peers that kids need.

[hrdwdmrbl]

From the video and article it doesn't seem like the kid is being rushed. The parents said that they're just "going with the flow" and "it's just who he is". It really seems like they're trying to do what's best for the kid and give him a balanced life. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

[arbitrary_name]

I took a job in sales (commission based, fail and starve) just to force myself to socialize better.

Short term - very very hungry. Long term - a far more effective and well-integrated member of society.

[lostmsu]

> still going to therapy to try and catch up in any non-academic sense

Sorry for asking, but what problems exactly do you have in non-academic sense?

[rf15]

Thanks for speaking out.