The Real-Life Doogie Howser 303
An anonymous reader writes "Sho Yano this week will become the youngest student to get an M.D. from University of Chicago. He was reading at age 2, writing by 3, and composing music by his 5th birthday. He graduated from Loyola University in three years — summa cum laude, no less. When he entered U. of C.'s prestigious Pritzker School of Medicine at 12, it was into one of the school's most rigorous programs, where students get both their doctorate and medical degrees. Intelligence is not Yano's only gift — though according to a test he took at age 4, his IQ is too high to accurately measure and is easily above genius level. He is an accomplished pianist who has performed at Ravinia, and he has a black belt in tae kwon do. Classmates and faculty described him as 'sweet' and 'humble,' a hardworking, Bach-adoring, Greek literature-quoting student. And in his own words, 'I may not be the most outgoing person, but I do like to be around people.'"
Re:IQ? (Score:5, Informative)
I do wish people would stop using that as some sort of gauge of intelligence - it has very little to do with intelligence, and just modernity.
Sure, but the only thing worse than an IQ test is every other form of intelligence measure. Claiming that the test has issues (it does) should not be used to divert attention from the fact that some people are very smart while others are mind-bogglingly stupid.
It's like saying that thermometers suck because they don't account for wind chill, humidex, UV exposure or different peoples' metabolism. You may be correct, but I'm still going to check the temperature before going outside.
Re:IQ? (Score:5, Informative)
I do wish people would stop using that as some sort of gauge of intelligence - it has very little to do with intelligence, and just modernity.
[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iq#Criticism_and_views [wikipedia.org]
Key info missing from summary: MD at Age 21 (Score:5, Informative)
Editors: Stop burying your leads!
Re:IQ? (Score:5, Informative)
Except for, you know, all the things the IQ predicts with strong correlation. You know, useful extrapolation, a fundamental tenant of science. Within that category of things, there's all sorts of things IQ is useful as a predictive gauge for:
*Productivity of new employees without previous experience in the field
*Income(up until about IQ 120, where huge diminishing returns take effect)
*Crime rates and recidivism rates
*Lifespan
*Chance of acquiring an advanced degree
*Political views
You know, other than all those major, life-impacting things, IQ doesn't predict anything.
I believe judging an individual on a single characteristic is both pointless and wrong. I just take issue with the meme that IQ is somehow irrelevant or useless as a means to understanding human intelligence. It reflects an ignorance of the observed reality we live in.
Re:IQ? (Score:2, Informative)
I'm familiar with some of those criticisms. Stephen Jay Gould is perhaps one of the most prominent ones. Unfortunately Gould himself has been discredited when it was recently (1-2 years ago IIRC) that he was basically making up stuff in "Mismeasure".
Some of the other people think that 'g' is too restrictive of a measurement and misses out on some other aspects of cognition. While I agree to some extent that there is more to us than just mere g, g itself (as proxied by IQ scores) has been shown to be an extremely reliable predictor of success and personal outcomes in life. So far, I've seen no real substantive rebuttal to that.
i judge genius by creative output not grades (Score:5, Informative)
real geniuses produce breakthroughs in art, science and technology. paper geniuses collect academic credentials.
so far all this kid has proved is that he has the academic game figured out.
Re:I'm nineteen years old and what is this ? (Score:5, Informative)
A TV show about a boy genius doctor [wikipedia.org] from 1989-1993.
Now, please get off the damned lawn. ;-)