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I don't see how you could come to the conclusion that I'm jealous because he worked hard. I have been praising the kid in every post I make. Also, I think calling him a genius is doing an injustice to the work that he put in to get the attention of MIT and the author of this article. It's as if calling him a genius explains everything and suggests that he has some sort of natural ability that other kids can't touch. "Sorry, son, your friend is a genius and you aren't, there's nothing you can do about it, now go back to plowing the field." Screw that, I think lots of kids have this potential, they just haven't been helped to find the beginning of the path. As for me being lazy, maybe when I was in the K12 system. Today I'm self taught, work from home freelance programmer. Aside from shipping code all day, I have had to keep my skills relevant for the years I have been doing this. I'm able to make my way doing this without living in my parent's basement. I would say that makes me an expert at laziness and procrastination. Everyone has these problems at times, but I have dealing with them down to a science, or I would literally starve. Nobody will wait for me to get around to getting my work done, if I'm not making reasonable progress, then I get replaced. There is zero job security for a freelancer. I suppose in some ways that makes me a bit like this kid. So, I'm rooting for him. I hope he gets into MIT. I also hope that other kids don't take that genius thing seriously and realize that they could do the same thing if they put in the effort. Also, while I hated the K12 system, I loved my teachers. I can credit many of them for the successes I have had in life. The overall system still sucks though. |