Are there any non-gifted scientists?!?!?

From: Der Fugue (bwvbabygotbach_at_netscape.net)
Date: 04/29/04 

Date: 28 Apr 2004 21:23:35 -0700

I'm a high school student, about to go to college to study math and/or
computer science. I'm basically a nerd, been interested in
programming for a while but looking back I had a pretty distorted view
of what programming actually was when I was hacking away at code in
elementary school and middle school (I'm sure plenty of you had
similar experiences). More recently I've picked up math as a hobby
and become more of a science nerd than a computer nerd.

Here's my dilemma: I ain't that smart. Failed my school's gifted test
each time I took it, usually score in the 120s on online IQ tests
(except a 150 on the obviously rigged iqtest.com test). That alone
wouldn't be a tragedy, except for the fact that my high school grades
are pretty average... at least for an honors kid. This year,
schoolwork has become my *obsession*, and while my grades improved
from B's and C's to A's and B's, these weren't quite the grades I was
looking for, especially considering my courseload is rather light.

Given, I'm not going to become an outstanding student overnight. Most
students I'm competing with have been working hard since elementary
school, so I should expect to have to work much harder than them to
obtain similar grades until I "catch up". But the problem is that I
may never truly "catch up", especially if I'm taking difficult classes
with really bright kids in college, because I may simply not have the
intellectual ability. Talent in math and the sciences exists, it
certainly isn't completely accounted for by IQ but I'm sure IQ plays a
large role in it.

I've met a lot of people with similar intellectual interests as I do
and read many a usenet IQ debate among such people, and I've yet to
encounter a person successful in mathematics or a "hard" science who
does not have a great deal of talent in the subject. This usually
means IQ > 130.

Here are a few interesting figures that someone will probably bring
up:
- Richard Feynman's IQ was 125. James Gleick's biography, page 30:
"Still, his score on the school IQ test was a merely respectable 125."
 I'd wager this result was some sort of fluke, but regardless of his
IQ per se, it's clear that from a young age Feynman had a considerable
amount of talent in math and science. Unfortunately that cannot be
said of an IQ-120-something person such as myself.
- The average IQ of a Nobel Prize winner (not sure whether this is in
any field or in the "physical sciences") is somewhere in the 120
range. I heard this from the "Test The Nation" televised IQ test
(which I did and got a 123 on, although the actual score would be a
bit higher given it started at age 18). Anyway, I've done some
research and never found where this statistic actually comes from.
Can anyone enlighten me?

As has often been said to me and as I'm sure many of you folks will
advise, it's all about hard work. But even if I could force myself to
work twice as hard as everyone else and get the grades and coursework
necessary to go to grad school, what do I do next when the work
becomes even more challenging?

I value education. In fact, being non-gifted gives me even more of a
reason to value education... so I can work toward reaching my true
potential (albeit a somewhat limited potential). Why should I work my
ass off studying something that comes easy to others, when I could
just go into something less... intellectual demanding.

Speaking of certain intellectual demands, would I be better off
choosing a different scientific field? Maybe my IQ would prevent me
from being a mathematician, but how about something like, say,
psychology? Maybe that's a bad example... would anyone care to offer
a list of "low-IQ" fields?

Why should I be interested in math and science in the first place? It
seems that most people with "average" IQs (say, within 1 s.d. from the
mean) have little or no qualms about being average. They're more
concerned with earthly things, such as their appareance, crappy music,
television, etc. I like to think that I've elevated myself from this.
 Not that I'm any better than these people, just that I'm not a
materialist. I've made the pursuit of knowledge the most important
pursuit in my life, because knowledge combats ignorance. Knowledge is
our criteria for evaluating new knowledge, for making decisions and
setting priorities. I've chosen to study math and science namely
because I'm fascinated by these subjects. But additionally, I often
think to myself that I won't have a better opportunity than now to
gain an understanding of these subjects. My dad is in his forties and
can't have more than a middle school understanding of math. There's
nothing stopping me from switching to some liberal arts major, placing
out of calculus, and taking the minimum number of science electives
via "xxxx for non-majors" courses. But what would I think of that
decision when *I'm* 40? I could pick up a graduate level psychology
paper right now and comprehend a pretty good deal of it. But give me
or just about any other (sane) human being a paper on "the topology of
k-manifolds [insert more geordi-from-star-trek-talk here]" and there's
no way in Hell I'll comprehend a bit of it.

At the same time, I wonder if I'm going to be wasting arguably the
best years of my life studying the stuff. I guess the big issue for
me is *how much* commitment I want to put into it. Obviously I need
to keep my life balanced with other interests and reserve some time
for fun no matter what I decide to do.

Wow I've spent a lot of time writing this post. Anyway, I'd be really
interested in your replies. I'm particularly interested in knowing if
there is anyone reading this who is/was in a similar situation as I
am. And referring back to the subject text, I'm wondering if anyone
can name some names. Name me a few respected mathematicians, computer
scientists, physicists, any field will work actually, who are not
"gifted".

I better be getting to bed...

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Are there any non-gifted scientists?!?!?
    ... > I'm a high school student, about to go to college to study math and/or ... > programming for a while but looking back I had a pretty distorted view ... More recently I've picked up math as a hobby ... > and become more of a science nerd than a computer nerd. ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: Are there any non-gifted scientists?!?!?
    ... > I'm a high school student, about to go to college to study math and/or ... > programming for a while but looking back I had a pretty distorted view ... More recently I've picked up math as a hobby ... > and become more of a science nerd than a computer nerd. ...
    (comp.theory)
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