Probably The Unknown Smartest Man Who Ever Lived

You'll probably say Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, or another eminent scientist if I ask you who the brightest person to ever exist on Earth was. What if I told you that there was an extremely smart person who was little known? He was a mathematical genius and a child prodigy. Why wasn't he successful or well-known?

In 1898 a truly unique person was born in Boston, Massachusetts. It was William James Sidis. His father Boris was a well-known psychologist and his mother Sarah was a doctor. They realized their son was special when he was still little. One day the mother finds her son writing a letter before his first birthday.

Then another day the parents see William carefully reading the New York Times understanding every word. There's nothing unusual about it except for the fact that William is less than two years old. The parents understand their son is a genius. They spend the family savings on books, maps, textbooks, and dictionaries to support their son and give him new knowledge.

When William turns four he reads the literature of Homer in the original. When he turns six, he learns the works of Aristotle. At the age of six he finished writing his fourth book. One of these books is a work on anatomy. By the age of eight, William speaks and writes fluently in English, Latin, French, Russian, Hebrew, Armenian and Turkish. He decides that this is insufficient and creates his own original language.

His parents are somewhat surprised by their son's abilities; they realize that he is too intelligent for a traditional school and is smarter than all of the teachers and classmates. William enters Harvard at the age of nine with ease, but the school forbids it because he is too young. For the next two years, he attends his old school and grows bored. When this happens, he doesn't stop writing books and completes a novel, some French poems, and a constitution for a fantastic utopia, which sets him apart from other prodigies. Unlike most young geniuses who start off mastering just one science, our hero is motivated by and effective in whole other realms of expertise in mathematics.

When William reaches the age of 11, they eventually allow him to attend Harvard. The faculty and students there are shocked to see such a young student, but they are most shocked by his level of knowledge. Some people even look up to him. Others find William strange, yet he excels at Harvard, effortlessly passing all of his examinations and even lecturing at the math club.

About 100 university professors and students attend his lectures on one of the most challenging topics in mathematics: our-dimensional bodies. While most people find these lectures to be overwhelming, those few who do are astounded by William's truly brilliant knowledge. The professors are confident that William will succeed as an astronomer and mathematician. They predict that he will discover new worlds, make discoveries, and develop novel methods for studying astronomy. Unfortunately, knowledge alone won't help William succeed in life. He struggles to make friends at school because many students don't understand him and don't want to be friends with him.

William earned his Harvard degree at the age of 16. After graduating from Harvard, William gets a job teaching mathematics at another school in Texas, but his teaching career is cut short when the school administration asks him to quit on his own because he is much younger than all the other teachers and students. He tries to fit into the big world and lead a full-fledged happy life.

People don't like it when a young man imparts knowledge on them, and as a result, William becomes well-known. Newspapers write about him and reporters interview him, but William can't stand the spotlight, so he chooses to keep a low profile. Over the course of the next few years, William moves from city to city, using different names so that no one can identify him. He also takes up ordinary jobs like a waiter.

William relocates to a new city, continues to write books, completes a 1200 page book about American history, compiles train and tram tickets and writes a book about them, as well as writing about science and astronomy. He publishes all of his books under various pen names, but sadly they aren't well-read and don't make him any money. Years from now, one of his books will get several thousand dollars at auction.

He speaks 40 languages well, although other scholars and biographers assert that he is capable of speaking more than 200. William lives a peaceful, probably content existence in New York, working as a carpenter, renting a modest flat, and socializing with friends. According to biographers that examine his life, William was adored by those who knew him. Although his younger years were difficult, everyone had nothing but positive things to say about William, making it seem like he was content with adulthood. However, some experts believe he was unhappy for the rest of his life.

In 1937, his quiet life changed when he met a woman who became his friend. She visited him and they talked about a variety of topics. Things are going well, and William is pleased to have a new buddy, but then a lengthy piece on him is published in a reputable magazine that paints a negative picture of his life and gives the impression that he is a crazy recluse. It turns out his new friend was a reporter and got close to William on purpose to learn as much as possible about his life.

Now hundreds of thousands of people get the wrong picture of him. William isn't going to leave it just like that and decides to sue the magazine for invasion of privacy. After a while, William loses the case despite his secretive life. The judge considers him a public person and there's nothing wrong if people discover something about the life of a public person.

He leaves his home and hides from people again no one knows how he spends his life for the next few years in 1944. He passed away at the age of 46. He wasn't rich by this point and was working as an office clerk. There was no money in his account. There were no friends around. No one knows what he had been doing in his final years.

Almost no one understood him all his life. Who knows what success he could have reached if people had been kinder to him? Throughout his life William passed several IQ tests. Each time the test results proved that he was a genius. Einstein possessed an IQ of 160. Leonardo da Vinci scored 180. Issac Newton possessed 190. Between 250 and 300 points were scored by William Sidis.

He was perhaps the smartest person ever, but as many smart people have demonstrated throughout history, intelligence alone is never enough to ensure success. The ability to conduct appropriately in public, speak clearly, and win others over is known as social intelligence.

A violinist who can't negotiate a high price for their concert would end up playing on the streets their entire life. The capacity to become famous and sell your skills is also an important talent. Someone could paint incredible pictures but never know how to present them correctly. As a result, their works of art can be recognized as cheap during the artist's lifetime.

Mean people frequently use geniuses for selfish purposes and deceive them. On the other hand, some people who don't have high intelligence or knowledge get high level positions become famous and achieve success thanks to social intelligence and hard work. Many geniuses were hermits and lived poorly because they never managed to get social.