Frank Anthony Wilczek: a childhood tale.

Today, I was at the Kuala Lumpur Innovation Forum 2011. There, I met an academic from the USA, who had an interesting tale to relate to me. The subject of my son, Ainan, came up in conversation and he, by association, told me the tale of another precocious boy, he knew as a teenager: Frank Anthony Wilczek.

Wilczek was in the American academic’s classroom in school. In fact, they sat next to each other, since the students were arranged in alphabetical order and my new acquaintance’s name began with W. Now, you may think this is not particularly remark worthy. Yet, it is for a couple of odd facts. Firstly, the classes in question were AP Physics (Advanced Placement) and AP Calculus. These were, by American standards, tough classes. Thus, one could expect that the students in those classes were the brightest in the school. So, my acquaintance had been quite bright as a child. Yet, Frank Anthony Wilczek stood out in these classes – for he was, according to my informant, just 12 years old at the time. Wilczek had been a child prodigy, of sorts.

Now, I was told, everyone in Wilczek’s class was awed by his intelligence. My acquaintance said that he knew, just KNEW, that no matter how many extra hours of work he put in to his Physics and Maths, that he would never be able to be as good or as bright as Wilczek – it just wasn’t about the work, Wilczek really had something the others did not. Indeed, the common view in his class, at the time, was that, one day, Wilczek would win the Nobel Prize. Rather uncannily, Wilczek did just that, for work he had done when he was a graduate student in 1973 – “the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”.

The tale of Wilczek’s precocious childhood and adult success, is one that struck me as worth knowing more widely. Some people believe, really believe, that child prodigies only shine in childhood. Such people dig up cases of child prodigies who went astray as adults – such as Sufiah Yusof – and use that “evidence” to bolster their case that prodigies do not become adult geniuses. Well, the truth of course, is rather more complex. Some prodigies do, in fact, become adult geniuses – like Frank Anthony Wilczek. Many prodigies become respected experts or performers in their fields – and only a minority, I would say, a very small minority, ever go astray so magnificently as Sufiah Yusof did. In fact, she is the only example I know of her kind – so she is hardly typical of the life outcome of prodigies. On the other hand, there are rather many prodigies who became very distinguished adult geniuses...others include Norbert Wiener, the father of Cybernetics, John von Neumann and even Richard Feynmann, who had aspects of the child prodigy about him, particularly in his areas of interest – Physics and Maths.

What particularly struck me about the Wilczek story was that the other kids in his class were able to see, instantly, for themselves, that Wilczek would “win a Nobel Prize one day”. That was their assessment of their classmate – and funnily enough, he went on to do just that. So, intellectual promise is evident in childhood. It is quite possible to look at a young child’s manner of thought and make fair estimates for their future. Should that future not come to be, I rather think it has nothing to do with their quality of thought or ability, but would be due to the random obstructions that are encountered in many lives. Should such a child not live up to their promise that is not because the promise was illusory – it is because life can be hard, unfair and obstructive. Quite simply, life can get in the way of the promise of any child, prodigy or not. If, however, there is enough “luck” in life, of the young prodigy, such that their obstructions are not overwhelming, then, it is clear, that such prodigies can grow to be very special adults indeed.

I wonder what Frank Anthony Wilczek, who is still alive at just 60 years old, would think if he knew what his fellow classmates thought of him all those years ago? They saw his future before he had lived it. I wonder, did he see it himself, as clearly, or was his ultimate success a pleasant surprise?

Young prodigies should be nurtured carefully, for if looked after, they, too, can become as successful as adults, as Frank Anthony Wilczek is – and many others like him.

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/

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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.)

A memory of childhood.

A few weeks ago, my wife, Syahidah, was reminiscing.

“One day, when I was nine years old, I came to understand something: as an adult, you have a choice. I wanted to remember this, when I grew up, so I said to myself: remember this – as an adult you have a choice.”

Her gaze was curiously inward and a little fond, as if touched by the little girl she had been.

“Well, you did remember.”

“Yes.”, she said quietly, pleased.

I was touched by this account. It was a sweet notion, that the little girl she had been, should try to communicate with the adult she was to become, by deliberately seeking to remember an insight she had had, into adulthood. It struck me as quite a mature thing to do for the little girl she had been. It meant that she understood the unfolding of life and what she would one day become. It also meant that she felt a need to speak to her older self, when she was no longer around to be able to do so. It meant she sought a sense of continuity between the present, that would one day be past, and the future that had not yet become.

Syahidah grew a little rueful beside me, as she dwelt on her younger self’s thought.

“Of course, when you become an adult, you realize that it is sometimes a little more complicated than that.”, she observed, cryptically.

“Yes. Sometimes. There are obligations.”

We agreed, in silence – but also, I think, in appreciation of the child she had been and the wisdom she had shown to understand that quintessential difference between a child’s life and an adult’s life – but also to have wished to communicate it, to her older self.

I had never met the child she had been – but I felt then, that she had been an impressive one, in a way, for she was, even when so young, seeking to understand what life was and how it is lived, at different ages. My wife would have been an interesting child to speak to, I think. Then, again, no doubt that is why she became an interesting adult to speak to!

It is funny to consider it but I feel this tale of my wife’s brought her younger self into the room with us, as if she did, in fact, manage to speak to the future: I felt her presence, on my wife’s tongue, in my wife’s eyes and in the expression on her face. My wife’s nine year old self had succeeded in bridging time, to speak with us, across all those years. She had, in fact, spoken to the husband she could never have guessed she would one day meet. How strange -and how touching. There was a depth to that moment, that reached back across the decades to a little girl, who no longer was, and a thought that had endured.

Thank you, Syahidah, for sharing that moment. It brought your childhood alive, for me. I glimpsed who you had been and sensed the wisdom you had, even then. Thanks.

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.)

Peak Oil? What is Peak Oil?

I had a quite remarkable and sobering conversation a couple of months ago. I was speaking to an expat oilman, here in Kuala Lumpur. He worked for a major oil company. He had spent his whole career in oil. I did something, he did not expect. I asked him a question.

“What do you think about Peak Oil?”, I prompted, carefully, watching him very closely for clues as to what he did think.

“What,” he began, a little puzzledly, “is Peak Oil?”

Tactfully, I did not reveal my surprise.

“Peak Oil is the point of maximum oil production, after which production begins to decline year on year, thereafter.”

He absorbed this foreign concept as if I spoke science fiction.

“There is LOADS of oil.”, he countered, somewhat emotionally, “Only the other day, they found a huge amount of it…as much as all we have ever found, in Brazil (I think he said).”

I didn’t hide my doubts. “Really? I thought that finds had become smaller and smaller over the years, and ever more difficult to access.”

“They are always finding new stuff.”, he said, unwilling to acknowledge reality.

As a parting question, a rather teasing question, considering that he was no more than about 30 and had plenty of time left to the end of his career.

“What will you do when the oil runs out?”

He had clearly never considered it.

“I think it will last my career.” He had grown a little more sober, during our conversation, as if my message was beginning to sink in.

“What will the world do, when it runs out, though? There will be a lot less energy about.”

“I don’t know.”, he said, with a hint of a frown.

“Cars might only be for the rich…”

“Yes.”

“Few will be able to fly…”

“Yes.”

“Lives will be much more local, with much less travel…”

“Yes.”

“Food will have to be grown locally…”

“Yes.”

“The Internet might even go down…”

“Yes.”

He looked then, out at his son playing outside in the garden. I could tell that I had prompted him to cast his thoughts forward to what his son’s world might be like. He seemed uncomfortable at what he was beginning to understand might come to pass.

I didn’t push the point anymore. I had set him thinking. The oil man who had never heard of Peak Oil, now had a pretty good idea of what that meant.

I hope you do too.

(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

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

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.)