The Sad Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived

For everyone asking, Einstein's estimated IQ of 200 was cited by Amy Wallace in her biography of William James Sidis Try brilliant.org/Newsthink/ for FREE for 30 days, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.

This is not a story about a man who had remarkable gifts...it is a story about a world where people destroy anyone who has remarkable gifts....

Just because he was a genius, doesn't mean he had to make an extraordinary contribution to society. Especially when that society didn't treat him well.

Lack of affection from his parents. Constant attacks from the media. Bullying from his peers and never fitting in … Yeah that’ll that’ll destroy anyone

Everyone, from parents to Colleges, from students to the press, literally everyone broke this young man. He never once was able to experience life by himself and at the end he was left to rot. Poor poor soul. R.I.P william j sidis

The reason why smart people go crazy is that there are so many dumb ones that are hellbent on driving them mad. In this chase the media was basically bullying him for decades..

His parents failed him by not letting him have a childhood. The key was mentioned early on, his father thought play was frivolous and unnecessary. Play is essential, not only, but especially, in childhood.

I find it remarkable that in an age without the internet, social media still managed to haunt him and contribute to his detriment in mental health.

Imagine the ego on his parents claiming it was the way they raised him that allowed for his genius. What a great way to ruin a childhood and cripple your own child.

“If you knew what smart people knew you’d be depressed for life” -a book I read

Being treated like this, knowing you are much smarter than everyone else but seeing others suceed in life is indescribably painful

To get the full picture of Sidis's life, it's important to include more information from his sister and his close friends. They refute much of what appears in his biography. He lead what many would consider an unremarkable life by choice . He simply wanted to be left alone and not be treated like a circus freak or spectacle everywhere he went.

"they didn't read him fairy tales, they read him greek myths" what is the difference

Not everyone with brilliant mind wants a Nobel prize or fame. Nothing wrong with living the life one wants for oneself, no matter how "simple" it is.

If their parents just saw him as a child and allowed him experience the happiness of his age , probably nobody would have have seen him as machine rather than human.

I read that as little as a 30-40 point difference in IQ between 2 people is enough to make connecting/socializing extremely difficult. He was 150+ points out of range of everyone he ever met. 😔 💔

Tragic that people are so very cruel. It's thought people are often envious when someone shows extremely high intellect. Thus, it is sad. Imagine what may have developed if he has been given accepted. Tragic.

How sad. I knew my biological children had lots of intelligence but my father pushed me to succeed to the point where I didn't have a normal social life in my teens. So when my kids came along I gave them lots of opportunities to learn, and an enriched environment in which to do it, but left the pace of learning up to them. I did the same with my foster and adopted children because, to me, success is being happy with your life and what you are doing.

Even the greatest minds can’t outshine bad parenting and bullying

He sounds a lot like my brother who was a genius. He could read fluently by the age of 2 yrs old. My parents didn’t do a thing. If you knew my parents you would know that they did nothing to further his intelligence whatsoever. He was just naturally intelligent. He was a member of Mensa. He also had Asperger’s syndrome. He was obsessed with trains and collected train numbers. He was also obsessed with computers. Despite his amazing intelligence he was never able to put any of it to any use. I think this is where the huge failure of my parents came in. They knew of his amazing capabilities but never nurtured any of them. No encouragement. Nothing.