Something Simple But Profound Destroyed the World's Highest IQ Man

When we think of super intelligent people throughout history, we would think of people like Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and perhaps Stephen Hawking.

Prior to actual IQ tests that came into existence in 1904, many very intelligent people had lived and died.

But the IQ test can give us a sign of intelligence, and if we use this as a measure of intelligence, then Einstein, Newton and Hawking had nothing on this guy, but you probably have never heard of him.

Einstein reportedly had an IQ of 160 and Newton had an IQ of 190. This guy had an IQ of 250 and above.

His name was William James Sidis. Now, there are conflicting reports about his place of birth. Some sources state New York and others state Boston, what they agree on is that the year was 1898.

Let’s discover the reasons that this man remained unknown. Who would give up such potential? Why would he give up such potential?

His father Boris was a psychologist with 4 degrees from Harvard and his mother was a medical doctor, so William certainly arose from the right gene pool.

His parents were both geniuses within their fields, and William was born to high expectation.

Willam was amazing. At the age of only 18 months, he could read the New York Times.

As a child, he was phenomenal.

By the time he had turned 8years old, he had taught himself 8 languages difficult languages like Russian, Armenian, Turkish, Latin, Greek, French, German, Hebrew.

Bored with learning languages, he invented his own language and he called this new language Vendergood.

His parents were very aware of his super intellect and they even tried to enroll him at Harvard at 9 years of age, but the university refused because the university stated he was too young.

At 11 years of age, Harvard accepted him as a student. It didn’t take him long to show his intellect. A year later, he started lecturing his professors, and that is why he became known as a child prodigy.

They teased him at University because he was so young, and admitted he had never kissed a girl.

When he turned 16, he had completed his first degree. He became very well known from his childhood. Fame can make or break people. William was tired of the fame and being treated so special.

He wanted a life of quiet seclusion and he never wanted to get married (Some would say this was obvious evidence of pure genius -Joke, just a joke.)

At the time, the American public was hungry for child prodigies and William’s Dad, Boris, being an excellent psychologist, used his skills to push his son to do better.

As a child, William loved learning, but as an adult, he lost interest in learning and William blamed his father for his lack of interest in learning.

He felt so strongly about this that he never even attended his father’s funeral.

After being employed as a mathematics professor at Harvard, he decided he would rather leave academia, tired of all the unwanted attention. He was tired of being in the spotlight and so he took a low profile job, doing mundane clerical work.

Because of his fame, people still recognised him and so he would change jobs very often.

He became a focus of the media, and he hated it. To make matter worse, in 1924, some reporters found out that he was in a low paying $23 a week job, and this story made headlines.

The reporters mocked him and proposed that he was no longer capable of performing like he did as a child and that he had amounted to nothing.

This was not true because William wrote several books under different pen names.

William was an objector to World War 1, and they arrested him at a violent protest in Boston. This was in 1919.

They then sentenced him to 18 months in prison.His parents could keep him out of prison and kept him under house arrest in their sanatorium for 2 years.

His parents treated him a bit like a freak show, focusing on his intellectual side and his fame and not giving him love and understanding. There was no nurturing, and this destroyed his potential.

It was as if his parents were using him as an exhibit of how to make a genius. They cared little for his actual emotional needs. Completely focused on his intellect and achievements.

His mother would spend a lot of their family savings on books and maps to encourage him. It was like he was a machine to them, having to produce wisdom and knowledge on demand.

Imagine if his parents had nurtured him and accepted and loved him unconditionally rather than treating him as a circus freak, perhaps he would have reached that full potential.

Could it be that the actions of his parents robbed the world of an earlier version of Elon Musk? What discoveries would he have made? We can only wonder.

The one thing I have learned is that love is that on which the entire world pivots, it is love that changes the world and love that illuminates the best of wisdom and knowledge.

Love is just as important, if not more important, than intellect for humankind. Intellect can not flourish without love and support.

Let me know your thoughts?