<p>and all the amazing accomplishments they had made by age 18, and how it's too late, no matter how hard I work, to ever live up to their greatness.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>If you want to be the best in the world at something, you better have started by age 5 and had major success by age 18 or you're hopeless :(</p>
<p>Maybe I feel this way because everyone had such high expectations for me when I was a younger kid and I ended up fizzling out into very-smart-but-not-prodigal slacker mediocrity</p>
<p>(sighs) Story of my Life</p>
<p>:depressed high five:</p>
<p>We can still be great members of society through hard work and a little luck, but we’ve passed the point where we can develop elite skills in specific intelligences such as music, sports, most academic fields, etc. In other words, we will never be an Isaac Newton or Beethoven, but it’s not too late to be a Donald Trump, John Stossel, or Ben Franklin</p>
<p>actually, it probably is too late to be a ben franklin. those guys went to grammar school and learned etymology in all the root languages before age 10</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>I bet those prodigies never got ass. Seriously man. Enjoy your life. You only get one chance. Those prodigies were passionate, but they missed out. ALOT.</p>
<p>Who cares who “got ass” in the context of infinity? I want to make a lasting impression on the world. i want to be remembered</p>
<p>I wonder if this could make a good college application essay if I shifted the focus on how I want to use this regret as motivation to succeed and work hard</p>
<p>why do people want to be famous and accomplish stuff</p>
<p>do stuff that you like</p>
<p>if you want to be remembered forever become a pilot and fly a plane into a building, it really is the easiest way</p>
<p>^ lol porkperson I lol’d</p>
<p>getting 'ass" is the number one thing humans do. We try to get famous JUST TO GET ASS. everything we do is to attract the opposite sex. Look at Tiger Woods. Had everything, great looking wife, but still did other women.</p>
<p>Btw, I read about one prodigy who committed suicide because expectations were too much on him. </p>
<p>Just live for yourself and not for other people’s views.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this depresses me every day… When I was younger I didn’t want to play an instrument or do math or much of anything except play, and now that I am older and want to develop some skills it is too late to become great at anything. Even academics would be easier if I would have laid a better foundation as a youngin.</p>
<p>I wish the drive would have come a lot earlier than 18 years old. Why couldn’t 5 year old me have had a strong work ethic? Now when I read about/ watch people with great intellects or talents, all i feel is jealousy instead of appreciation</p>
<p>■■■</p>
<p>Can’t say I was a prodigy, but I could’ve done a lot more considering what I had done by middle school. Unfortunately, now I can be bitter and somewhat jealous sometimes because of that, and it makes me frustrated. Near the top of my grade level in the state math competitions and very good at piano and chess (stereotypical i know) I really regressed in middle school, and eventually dropped piano, math team (now only satisfactory in Calc AB), and have just recently begun chess again.
I could’ve been a top-of-the-class type student with great EC’s and possibly ivy material, but instead now I’ll only be good. Which is fine, but watching people, who i could have been, get into ivies and move onto the next part of their lives with a shining future, just makes me look at myself with shame.
The small consolation is that I’ve developed into a more sociable and socially confident person, and do well in humanities, business, etc.
With this in mind, I’ve been fighting to resurrect myself and while I know I won’t come close to what I could have been, I’m not going to give up and just become a could-have-been. I’m just happy that I’ve realized this now, and not later, because when you’ve truly become old and realized you didn’t do **** with your life, that’s what I’m really scared of. </p>
<p>““Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on Earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.””</p>
<p>So long story short, yeah we didn’t live up to what we could have been, but keep in mind that we’re still young and have a lot ahead of us. Use that as motivation, and never, ever resign yourself to submission and inferiority.</p>
<p>Doinschool and any other person who can relate to this, listen to what I have to say. I probably sound like an old man, but our lives are too far from over to give up on anything.</p>
<p>another genius from gunn/paly area
[Palo</a> Alto Online : Palo Alto High prize-winner hooked on the ‘elegance’ of mathematics](<a href=“Palo Alto High prize-winner hooked on the 'elegance' of mathematics | News | Palo Alto Online |”>Palo Alto High prize-winner hooked on the 'elegance' of mathematics | News | Palo Alto Online |)</p>
<p><a href=“http://tedxbayarea.com/blog/2010/11/02/lynnelle-ye/[/url]”>http://tedxbayarea.com/blog/2010/11/02/lynnelle-ye/</a></p>
<p>“But to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus:
Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander
returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we
make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was
converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” - Hamlet</p>
<p>Learn from your classics, please.</p>
<p>
Definitely a worthwhile goal to strive for; after all, human pleasure is the highest form of human achievement.</p>
<p>No one will care who you are in a 100 years, but as long you gained the most pleasure in your life is it worthwhile to live.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[citation needed]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[citation needed]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[citation,explication needed]</p>
<p>there’s always some time left to start a social networking site for your future university, then have that expand across universities across the country, high schools across the country, and then all over the world, and become one of the world’s most richest entrepreneurs under the age of 25.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why is this? Is there something which dictates that you must have started something at an early age to be exceptional in it or reach prodigy status? Is it not possible to start it as an adult and still reach prodigy status in it? Not trying to start an argument, just asking.</p>
<p>hello! the life-expectancy back then was only like 30.
15 years old was basically half your life.</p>
<p>cornell - basically, yes. brain plasticity decreases with age. No chess player who started before age 13 (and that’s being very veeeery conservative) will ever be the best in the world. guaranteed. besides plasticity, there is just flat out more time to practice.</p>
<p>moocow - I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Those figures are distorted by high birth/infant mortality. Newton lived to 84.</p>
<p>IT’s not like a healthy 18 year old was going to expect to drop dead at age 30.</p>
<p>that said, in the modern era we do have significant advantages</p>
<p>I really don’t believe that. Especially for artistic fields like music, fine art, writing, drama… They all require maturity, self knowledge and revision revision revision. Obviously if you don’t have some spark of talent you will never be <em>great</em>, but that spark doesn’t necessarily show itself before you’re 18, I don’t think.</p>
<p>My mom was a stay at home mom for a very long time, dropped out of undergrad while in community college. She got back into school around late twenties, worked her way up, and is now pretty famous in her field even though she’s only in grad school (albeit an amazing program). She’s just getting more and more effective and more well known, winning tons of serious awards and stuff. And she definitely didn’t ever display any promise. I don’t know, just an example that there are really no rules or guidelines to academic achievement. Mostly I like bragging for her, hahaha.</p>
<p>I mean I know she’s pretty much an exception. Just want to make sure everyone remembers that there are exceptions though…</p>
<p>doinschool-- I supposed so. Many great leaders, Alexander the Great for example, conquered empires at a young age and ended up dying relatively young.
In Classical Greece or Rome, where you really see people doing so much before the age of 18, the life expectancy was only 28.</p>
<p>OP-- The majority of prodigies are savants. A normal human brain at the age of 5 really doesn’t naturally have the ability to pick up one topic and work on it non-stop. (Some eastern parents train their 5 year olds to do this). But really, it is okay not to be a prodigy. I value well rounded-ness much more.
I’d rather not be socially awkward.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For many things you cannot reach elite status unless you start at an early age.</p>
<p>Like piano for instance, it is literally impossible for someone to become a concert-caliber pianist unless they started as a young child.</p>
<p>Someone could practice every day from age 18-50 and they would still not be as good as a pianist who started young and practiced daily from age 7-17. People can learn sooooo much faster in those formative years which is why I wish my parents would have forced me to learn some skills while my brain was still malleable.</p>
<p>Same goes for languages, chess, and probably math language and other crucial areas.</p>
<p>thus … ■■■</p>
<p>So what is this “cutoff” age? Even though it may take a longer time, it’s not possible to become elite in them at all?</p>
<p>And on the contrary, it is possible to become a master at a language if you started late, and I’m not talking about Rosetta Stone lol (even though I hear it does work). I know people who have done this.</p>