The psychological effect of fame.

I noticed something very odd the other day. Ainan, 11, was going for an interview for something or other (no need to discuss it further, just yet). Standing to one side, holding a form that I had just filled in, was a young woman. A little shudder passed through her, as I gazed at her. How curious, I thought.

“What’s up?”, I asked, gently.

She clutched the form, concerning my son, more tightly, in her hand. “I am nervous.” She shuddered again, as she said this.

Now, I hadn’t expected that. I didn’t enquire about what, for I knew, at once, what must have been making her nervous. It was all rather strange. SHE was part of the team interviewing Ainan – yet it was not Ainan who was nervous, but HER. It was Ainan’s fame that was affecting her so, it seemed. To her, Ainan was a personage she had read about in newspapers – a somewhat legendary figure, therefore – and so, to meet him, in the flesh, was for her a matter of some challenge.

I led the conversation away from the thought that made her nervous and on to the task that Ainan had to complete, that day. As her thoughts turned to her work, she seemed to relax somewhat – for that domain was more in her control.

The moment was a startling one for me. It made me realize that, though Ainan is very young, he is, already, to many eyes a “famous person” – with all the psychological effects on people that come with that. I am led to wonder how much this effect on others will grow, over the years, as he continues to achieve unusual things and continues to become better known, thereby. To me, he will always just be my son – but to others, it is clear, he is already becoming something else – a figure of some weight, in the world, at least in terms of the effects he has on people’s minds. This little incident was just a hint of what fame can be. I learnt something from it: when a person becomes famous, it is not they who change, but the whole world in response to them. My son, Ainan, was still my son Ainan – he had not changed in any way since becoming well known – but, at times like this, it was clear that the world had changed in response to him. The world was no longer the same – it was gradually becoming something else, something new.

I hope that whatever the world becomes, in response to Ainan, that it continues to be welcoming and accepting, as it has been so far. I know this, however: that whatever happens, Ainan, being Ainan, will remain centred and calm, in the middle of it all. Ainan’s fame will change the world, as it appears to him – but Ainan will remain as he is: a quiet observer of it all.

I am left with one question, as I reflect on that twenty-something woman’s reaction to Ainan. How will girls behave towards him, when he becomes a teenager? If a twenty-something woman can be led to shudder at his presence, how on Earth will teenagers react when Ainan, himself, is one? Perhaps this particular young scientist will have something of the “pop star” about him. There are, after all, already signs of some perturbations in the social world. I wonder what Ainan will make of it all? We shall have to wait and see.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The importance of a public platform.

It has long puzzled me as to why the world is run by people who seem dumber than certain others. There are many very bright people, who could, perhaps, provide solutions to some of the world’s problems, and yet, who never – or rarely - get heard. The problem here is simple: having ideas and having a platform are two different things. It is quite possible – even probable – to be a person of ideas, but not to be gifted with a platform from which to voice them.

It seems likely to me, that the kind of person who is good at having ideas...the “genius”...is probably also likely to be poor at the people skills that might help him or her build a public platform, from which to influence people and the course of the world. Thus, it is that we have the present situation in which people who don’t seem very bright (to me and, no doubt, to lots of others, too), end up in positions of great power and influence, whilst others, who are much brighter, never really reach public attention and, therefore, have little influence.

From my point of view, it seems easier to have good, interesting and useful ideas, than it does to acquire a powerful platform from which to voice them. This, of course, means that the ideas in question may never reach their potential for beneficial influence on the world. Part of the problem is that the international news media is not really interested in ideas, nowadays – they are interested in “celebrity” (which is, of course, the antithesis of those who have ideas). Thus, anyone with an interesting idea will find that, in general, the news media have no interest in covering it. This, of course, greatly restricts the potential range of influence of the idea in question. Such an idea might end up in an academic journal – but, such journals often have such small circulations, that very few people, indeed, will ever read it. In fact, an article published in a journal often has to be “discovered”, before it can be of much influence. By this, I mean, that it must come to the attention of a broader base of academics and other interested parties, perhaps through word of mouth, from the few who have actually read it. This is an uncertain process and may not happen for years after the publication of an article.

Publishing in academic journals is not, in general, a powerful enough platform to maximize the influence of an idea. It is only when, somehow, the idea “catches on” and is propelled into public consciousness through the rare occasions on which mass media DO cover an idea, that it may reach its potential for influence.

Some few thinkers, are fortunate enough to have become sufficiently famous such that their every utterance is covered in the international media: an obvious example would be Stephen Hawking, who need only mouth an opinion, to generate coverage. This phenomenon, however, has nothing to do with ideas, or the media being interested in them, but is to do with celebrity. Were Stephen Hawking not a celebrity, no-one would be listening to him, in any way, or to any degree, at all: his thoughts would be forever unknown.

Yet, given Stephen Hawking’s public platform it is quite clear that he is able to attempt to influence the course of events, by raising awareness of matters which interest him. This is a great power and it is one that would prove more valuable still in the hands of others (who shall probably never have it), who have many ideas, but little opportunity to catch attention with them.

One happy development, for those with ideas, who seek to influence, is the advent of the Internet for it offers the means to convey an idea, to the world, without any need for an intermediary. Of course, the fact that everyone now has this power, means that the Internet is cluttered with the thoughts of hundreds of millions of people – and so ideas are now hard to notice, for a different reason: they get lost in the chatter. Yet, there is hope. The Internet offers at least a basic platform to all who have a thought to speak. In the long term, perhaps, interesting ideas have a chance of being noticed and promulgated about the world, hopefully gaining them some kind of influence. I only hope that the Internet endures to allow these ideas to be discovered and implemented in due course.

Even with the Internet, however, the truth remains that those we come to know of as thinkers are not necessarily the best thinkers. They are, in fact, those people who have developed, for themselves, the best platforms. Our view, therefore, of whom the world’s “great” thinkers are, is formed almost entirely by the ranks of those who have secured a platform, for themselves, either through their own efforts, or some variety of inheritance of fame or influence. It seems likely to me, however, that many of the world’s greatest, most interesting and potentially most important thinkers, do not have such platforms and so their thoughts go relatively unnoticed, their work of less influence, not through any lack of merits, but through a lack of opportunity to be widely heard. In time, some in this category may come to be known and their work may finally become influential – but that is a slow and haphazard process. In the meantime, the media will entertain us with the “thoughts” of those who have good platforms and distract us from the fact that there might be many others, unheard, out there, with better ideas to offer.

As a final thought, one has to ask: are the world's political leaders truly the best the world has to offer? I find it hard to believe. A recent example that leads me to question the quality of leaders and potential leaders, is Rick Perry's refusal to believe in man made global warming, despite the fact that the science behind it, is very simple indeed. To my mind, this makes him dim of wit and unsuited to any high office - yet, there he is running for leadership of the Republicans and potentially a future President of the USA. He is an example of a man of little substance, who is good at building a platform for himself. There are, I am sure, many better thinkers, who would offer more to the USA, as a leader, than Rick Perry is able to offer, who simply don't have the right platform. They are good at thinking, but not necessarily good at self-promotion.

The world would benefit from an inversion here. All those who are good at thinking but poor at self-promotion and platform building, should be thrust to the fore - and all those who are good at self promotion and platform building, but not so strong at actual thinking, should be steadfastly ignored. Were this so, we would have a world we would want to live in: a world that is solving its problems and making progress towards a better state.

In the meantime, think carefully about how you cast your vote: are you voting for an excellent thinker, or an excellent platform builder (who is not so good at thinking)? It would be wise to distinguish the two, for only the true thinker is likely to have the mental wherewithal, to solve the world's problems. Of course, rarely, the two are one: a good thinker has a good platform. I wish that were always so.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.).

Is Macaulay Culkin still alive?

The question is not my own. Today a searcher arrived on my blog with the terms: “Is Macaulay Culkin still alive today in 2011”. That gave me pause. However, another similar question compounded it: twice in the last couple of days I have had searches for the former child prodigy Kim Ung Yong: “Kim Ung Yong, Date of Death” and “Kim Ung Yong Died...”. They are basically the same search. They embody the assumption of death, for someone who was once prominent and famous, but who now leads a quieter, less public life.

What is really sobering about these searches is where the Macaulay Culkin search was from: Grove City,Ohio, in the United States. One would have thought that an American would know that Macaulay Culkin was still alive...but apparently not. I didn’t note where the Kim Ung Yong searchers were from.

The stories of Kim Ung Yong and Macaulay Culkin have certain similarities. They were both famous as children. They both showed great promise. Then they both elected, as adults, to lead more discrete, less prominent lives as adults. In both cases it is not clear to what extent this is choice or happenstance. Whatever the case, they have both slipped from public view – yet both are still alive.

It is interesting that some members of the public assume that these once prominent children have died, since they are no longer prominent as adults. This is quite sad and speaks of the expectations of the general public towards such figures. Everyone has a right to conduct their lives as they wish. If a person who is famous as a child, wants a quieter life as an adult – then that is their choice. They should be free to make that choice. It seems, however, that, in some quarters they are not. The simple fact that they have chosen a less public adult life leads to the assumption that they must have died young. They didn’t die. What died was their wish to sustain a public image and presence.

Macaulay Culkin has largely stopped acting. We don’t know the reasons for this. Kim Ung Yong, has chosen to work as an academic in a minor provincial University, rather than have a more visible position. He has published 90 papers in his field, hydraulics. So, he continues to contribute – but in an area that is not high profile or likely to attract attention.

I feel the public should not expect anything of such people. They should let them be and choose their own lives – even if these lives might disappoint the expectations of those who followed them as children. Everyone’s life, is their own – and is not lived for public consumption.

So, carry on living quietly, Macaulay Culkin and Kim Ung Yong. Enjoy your lives in the way you want – even if some people out in the world, think you are dead because of it. None of it matters. The perceptions of strangers do not count. What counts is whether Macaulay Culkin and Kim Ung Yong enjoy the lives they lead. I hope they do. They should also be allowed to live those lives in peace and free from public pressure.

So, just be what you please, Culkin and Kim. I, for one, believe in your right to do so. Have happy lives.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html
and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks. You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Grigory Perelman and the Millenium Prize.

Dr. Perelman, the famously reclusive mathematician has done it again: he has been awarded the first Millenium Prize for the proof of the Poincare Conjecture that a sphere is the only three dimensional enclosed space that does not have any "holes". This, apparently, was a very tough problem and Dr. Perelman has provided an elegant proof. Thus, he deserves the prize - however, the problem is he may just refuse it.

Dr. Grigory Perelman has a history of shunning the accolades that his profound work accrues. He refused, for instance, to attend a Fields Medal ceremony to receive that prize. It seems that he didn't want the fuss that went with earning such an honour. So, he stayed at home in St. Petersburg, where he lives with his mother.

This time, however, the prize in question, the Millenium, comes with one million dollars attached. The general view is that Dr. Perelman may very well turn this down as he has yet to say that he will accept the prize. I hope that he accepts it, for the circumstances of his life cannot be easy. Dr. Perelman has been unemployed for several years and has turned down all offers of work. It may be that he wishes to be totally free to pursue his ideas. Yet, not having an income and living with one's mother in one's forties cannot be an easy life. It may be that Dr. Perelman's financial circumstances may be affecting his ability to give of his best and do the best work he can.

For those who have never had money - as I assume Dr. Perelman has not - it is difficult to understand the freedom that comes with having money. The one million US dollars of the prize would ensure that Dr. Perelman need not have any financial worries and would allow him to pursue his work, fully. It may even buy him extra peace and the ability to secure further privacy, should he require it. I doubt that he will ever read my words, but I hope that, uncharacteristically, he accepts this prize for the freedom it will give him to focus more clearly, upon his work and live a life of peace.

It seems that Dr. Perelman fears celebrity. Well, he won't become one, in any real sense, since the times that he comes to public attention are too far apart. People forget a face that they do not see regularly. Thus, he has no real worries in the celebrity department. His fears are needless and groundless. Indeed, the money that the prize awards could be used to allow him to live an even more secluded life, if he so wished it.

I understand his concern, however. A thinker needs peace and quiet in which to contemplate. He fears that if he begins to accept the prizes offered to him, that he will lose that peace. On the contrary, I think he will have the power to gain greater peace, for a life of financial restriction is not one that anyone would call peaceful. He must have limitations that could be overcome were he to simply accept the prizes that his work deserves.

I am concerned, though, to note that several self-interested parties (one of which I understand is the St. Petersburg Communist Party) have urged him to donate the money to them, should he not want it, to "alleviate poverty". These are, I think, very selfish requests. There is already poverty to be alleviated, in this situation - Dr. Perelman's. He has earned these prizes and it seems, to me, to be somewhat evil, that various organizations should be urging him to give them, his well deserved money. I hope he doesn't heed them and sees that his need is greater than their own. It seems to me to be more important to free one genius to work, to his best, than to spread one million dollars thinly across the hundreds of thousands of poor people in St. Petersburg. The money would make a great difference to Dr. Perelman - but not one bit of difference to have it spread across so many others.

So, Dr. Perelman, if you ever read these words, I urge you to accept the money - though not necessarily to actually attend any ceremonies. The money will give you more freedom than you are presently able to imagine.

Happy thinking.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)