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The Real-Life Doogie Howser
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.'"
Nike Air Revolutions?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
>Despite his gifts, success was not guaranteed. Several medical schools wanted no part of him because of maturity questions. Even at Pritzker, some faculty members worried they would be robbing him of a normal adolescence. On a college campus, he was a natural target for wisecracks. Some asked harsh questions about whether his mother was pushing him somewhere he didn't belong.
Now Imagine if he had mutant powers...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
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.
Hopefully he will go into research and stay away from patients, because there's more to being a successful clinician than sheer brain-power, and most of it comes with experience and invariably, age.
always good to hear that someone is excelling at a young age like this kid. i just hope he doesnt feel like he missed on life experiences later in life. i cant imagine if prodigies feel that they missed out on college-keggers, or proms or things like that.
What a snob!
She and Dr Robert Chase didn't really kiss in House MD, it was just a plot device! CO out
Sounds like he's headed to spend the next five years as a pediatrician resident. What strikes me is this: After all the acceleration, does he end up simple having a professional career that's ten years longer than normal? Without some exceptional accomplishments along the way, it might not have been the best trade-off.
It is people like him who eliminate the quasi-religious belief of meritocrats that success is dependent on hard work and that you "get what you deserve".
Fact is, it's mostly down to nature.
He'll go into obscurity for a few years. Then, out of the blue, he'll show up to help the real-life Harold and Kumar and then become a womanizer in NY on a real-life "How I Met Your Mother".
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
My father was someone like that, IQ literally off the charts, used by the University of Chicago to help calibrate IQ tests for people with IQ's over 200. Multiple degrees for the sake of multiple degrees, the whole nine yards. Did his buddy's doctorate thesis for his PhD in an unrelated field just to help him out, and his buddy is now a leading expert in his field. People's expectations were off the charts with how they how wanted to exploit him. His own expectations of himself and others became unfathomably high.
Had trouble his entire life connecting to normal people, even people of normal genius level intelligence had trouble relating with him. He thought so far ahead of everyone else that he even thought ahead of himself. When you spend so much time thinking past tomorrow you have trouble living for today. The result was this life was a mess and the practical details of his life were something that I often had to to take care of for him.
Being a genius is an accident of birth, being a genius compared to other geniuses is arguably more of a curse than a gift. In the end the longer he lived the more he learned to dumb himself down when around others. It was a social survival skill. I do not envy the person in this article.
IF only the school systems in america werent structured how they are I imagine that we could have many folks finishing schooling much earlier than 18 and college a few years later..
I know many students who were held back merely because they had to wait to go on to the next year.. at best put in an "advanced placement" course..
we could easily have students graduating highschool at 14 or 15 ...if not sooner.. with the 'smart' ones beating that.. all of the time.. but.... it just doesnt seem to happen
What's a Doogie Howser?
- Sincerely, a young'un
I went to school with Sho at Mirman in Los Angeles. Humble? But, of course, this was before puberty, so things may have changed. As for gifted, I wouldn't know since I didn't really understand the deeper meaning of anything he had to say. And this from a student who also wen tot a school for gifted children. Looking back on the experience, I wish I had been gifted a little more like Harry Reems and a little less like Sho.
(didn't get in btw) one of the things they kept saying when I went on interviews is that they wanted to make sure this is something you really wanted to do. I kind of felt this was horseshit and just another hoop to jump through and of course this is a data point in support of that position. (Since I could very easily see that a decision a12 year old made might not be the one he agrees with as an adult. Hell, he's already a pianist, he could dump medicine to go on to a career as a classical musician.) Admittedly some of the schools arguably thought that way but the fact at least one did makes me wonder.
Perhaps you just don't hear about their childhoods after they've found success, but I always hear stories about these geniuses graduated X years early, but rarely about their professional accomplishments.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
As such, the path he has chosen is good news for diseased children. However, humanity as a species isn't affected by those personnal tragedies he decided to focus on. On the other hand, there's a number of subjects in physics, genetics or even medecine that could have had a much wider impact.
Yes, I'm aware such a way of thinking classifies into the cold-hearted bastards category.
if this kid wants to be successful he needs to go to Wall St. everything else is for chumps.
"...according to a test he took at age 4, his IQ is too high to accurately measure.
I never really understood why statements like this are made, as if he could never be tested later in life to re-validate or measure his IQ accurately. Regardless if he proves to be off the charts again at age 10, 15, or 25, it just sounds very stupid to make statements about single-digit age IQ tests that make it appear that a 4-year old "stumped" test writers. Or perhaps it begs the question of the validity of IQ testing at that age in general.
I'd almost prefer him go into music... none of my business of course... it's just that exceptional people probably do the most good doing something creative. Be that expanding our understanding in science or advancing something in one of the arts or inventing something in some form of engineering.
He's a 21 year old kid that has spent a lot of his time hitting the books harder then anyone. And he can do whatever wants. The best of luck to him.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I hate having to RTFM just to find the one key point.
Editors: Stop burying your leads!
I don't know any genius level people, but I know 3 who were fast-tracked through high school and graduated very prestigious colleges at 17/18. They all went on to get PhDs, and they all failed out for the same reason: sometime during their PhD they wanted to try to re-live their youth as they should have, and began acting like teenagers again again. Drinking, partying, getting in trouble.... these guys were the smartest guys I knew, but each one, on their own, managed to derail their careers because they completely missed their youth.
Not saying this kid is in any danger of going down the same path... maybe his massive intellect will divert him from temptation. But every time I hear about someone graduating college exceedingly young, I always wonder when their fuse is going to run out.
He will now be taking charge of a research program on the effects of alcohol on a brilliant young mind.
I entered Harvard at 5, and graduated summa cum laude. I was tenured by the age of 6. By the age of 7 I burnt out and turned to drink, hookers and gambling. Now I am a bitter 8 year old who hates the world, and can't get a job due to my prison sentence.
It'll be just the same for this guy, just you watch.
http://9gag.com/gag/3110794
and you can't put the age he's at now/getting the degree at into the summary? PFFT..
Bad summary-
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Where are the Alphas when you need them?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
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.
What's a "Doogie Howser" ?!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What do you mean IQ above genius level ?
Where does the genius level IQ start ? How can you be over genius, what's that called ?
This is nonsense.
Thanks for making me feel like an under-performing old fart! *shaking fist*
I'm reading now "Emotional Intelligence" and this book talks about how only the IQ is not the only key to success in life. There is also some information about how persons IQ-centric often lack some social skills
Slashdot ya no es que lo era!
Ok so they say he's so smart but then he goes into Medicine?
Ok, was it as a researcher? Or just your average run of the mill speciality that anyone who has the money to get through school can get?
As mentioned previously, engineering, physics, biochemistry et al seem to be a better fit for such a mind.
Seems whomever was guiding him to a career may have made the choice FOR him.
Dr House.
Have gnu, will travel.
How about a measurement at some point that matters?
This just in: all children 6 months old are super geniuses! None of them can be accurately IQ tested!
Do one now, find out that yes, he's very gifted with work ethic and otherwise he's pretty run of the mill smart. I'd be shocked if he was over 200, and floored if he was substantially over it.
Some asked harsh questions about whether his mother was pushing him somewhere he didn't belong.
That Tiger Mom can push as hard as she wants. There is simply no way Mark Zuckerberg is going to marry a dude!
...and he has a black belt in tae kwon do.
Ah, now it makes sense.
Sho Yano: "Suit up! Give me an A+ or else you're in for an ass-wiping that would be legen-what-for-it-dary!"
Teacher: "Yes, Sho Yano, sure... Whatever you say... Please don't hurt me..."
Doogie Howser was a doctor at 16, five years earlier!
U mad?
Even Albert Einstein got a divorce. I think whatever gifts this young man has will be dogged and encumbered by being labeled a sideshow freak--even in the best possible way. Look at the biography of William Sidis. Even taking into account the myth-making of genius/madness, I see little benefit of being a prodigy, but I see a lot of attention addiction and other maladies that may choke out a fulfilled and happy life.
Davidson, who was on the same OB-GYN rotation, recalled the teenage Yano's reaction to witnessing his first birth. "He just looked at all of us and said, 'There's got to be a better way.'"
While Yano's intelligence is simply amazing, there is a sad side to this story. Yano was virtually robbed of his youth and part of being young is playing with toys and exercising one's imagination. Youth is something you don't get back and he was jet propelled into becomming an adult. This is learning to run before you learn to walk. I hope that Yano doesn't regret not really having a youth.
If we humans have one single shred of sense, we will help him form babby at alarming rate.
I don't care about all his myriad academic achievements, what I really want to know is: does he keep a journal on an Apple II?
We keep hearing about prodigies like this when they are young, but what happens to them when they get old enough to actually do something? You would think all these geniuses would have solved world hunger and world peace by now. Do they turn into average folks by the time they are 25? Drugs and hanging out with loser friends are major forces that loom in this child's future.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
I was basically a highly advanced student. Never was able to skip grades or anything though. My mom wouldn't let them for fear of ruining my social growing.
Like others said above, schooling was a lot of repetition and I felt a lot of it was nonsense. Like other kids memorizing what chapter covered a certain concept.
I carried a pillow to my classes and slept as much as possible. Aced tests and did no homework. Came out with a C/D average on the classes that didn't try to fail me since it's "cheating" to use my brain to avoid doing the homework.
I failed government senior year since I was already working and living on my own and I did not have time to attend a city council meeting which was required to graduate.
So I didn't graduate. Technically I'm a drop out, yet at 18yrs old I made 60,000 a year. I'm 24 now and earning $90,000/year. I'm such a good coder no one cares whether I had school or not.
If this kid is so smart, he will easily be able to best my $30/hr at 18 and my current $45/hr at a large automaker. I guess we'll have to wait and find out.
All he's proved is that he's smart...... I proved that I'm smart and I made a hell of a lot of money without a diploma or degree. Seems pretty smart to me.
This, just... wow. I didn't think it was possible to be more self-deprecating, but I think I managed to.
His parents decided on doctor.
..."screwed up in the head" by the time they reach young adulthood. Without at least a small, appropriate amount of "getting into some mischief with your peers" during your child & adolescent years, you'll become socially retarded and develop personality disorders.
"He was reading at age 2, writing by 3, and composing music by his 5th birthday."
The summary just didn't tell us what he did at age 8 and 13. But you could've easily deduced that he graduated at 21.
On first glance I though the article was about a "Doggie Howitzer"
Composing music is something an average 5 year old does.
If he's that bright, he'll be earning mad money before he's 25. If he's earning 100k+ by that age, he'll be driving a Porsche and banging chicks like a rock star.
Sorry, but that easily replaces a childhood with toys.
What's sad is that you identify this kid as sad because he was rushed to adulthood, when there are millions of kids also robbed of their childhood because of poverty, and a lack of opportunity to advance like this kid did, simply because they were born into some shithole.
And that shithole could even be in the USA -- many areas of this country are devastated by crime and poverty -- some kids don't even get to make it to his age, they are killed by stray gunfire, or in some even worse places (in the third world), sold off to slavers, or turned into child soldiers. Other kids here in the USA join gangs because there is no other choice.
If he makes good money while he's young enough to enjoy it, it will trump any and all childhood 'play'. Don't be sad for this kid, turn your empathy towards those that actually need it.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
"Maybe intelligence is too variable, complex and human to be measured in a single number?"
Anything can be measured in a single number, the question is 'how useful and predictive' is this number? With IQ, the empirical answer is "reasonably but not universally predictive".
There actually is a technical point behind IQ. If you measure performance across all sorts of cognitive (and sometimes other) aspects, appropriately normalize the subscores and then look at the principal component (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_component_analysis) across large samples of individuals you observe a phenomenon: a significant (though not total) fraction of the variance can be explained by the single, largest principal component called 'g' in psychometric literature. This phenomenon did not have to be true empirically, but it is, and the degree to which it is true is also quantifiable.
In a nutshell, people who perform high or low on some subsets are also substantially more likely to perform high or low on other cognitively-oriented subtasks.
So, yes, "intelligence" does mean something and is a fact of Nature. Note, that of course, the subjects typically tested on an 'IQ' test have now been post-hoc chosen to be those which have high g-loading, i.e. are substantially correlated within individuals.
If the typically tested tasks had also included, for instance *) ability to sing on tune *) ability to catch thrown balls while running, *) ability to distinguish odors *) ability to discern emotions in faces, etc, all of which clearly require brainpower, their "loading on the principal component of IQ" would be substantially weaker than the correlation between performance on predicting numerical sequences and analogies in natural language.
Just as I started reading this story, Rod Stewart's "Some guys have all the luck" played on the iPod. Spooky.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
> Davidson, who was on the same OB-GYN rotation, recalled the teenage Yano's reaction to witnessing his first birth. "He just looked at all of us and said, 'There's got to be a better way.'"
First I laughed, but later I asked: what, exactly, is "better"? Certainly we can all easily come up with ideas on what is better for the mother and the baby, but what is better for humanity? That is not an easy question.
I know a few people that have exceptionally high IQ's. I'm no slouch, having an IQ of 140, but I pale in comparison to them.
One fellow was insanely intelligent. It was like dealing with a super-advanced alien at times. That is, if you were able to get past his odious personal habits, of which he had many. I remember one in particular: take a near-scalding hot bath, use no soap, get out, and liberally apply hand lotion all over his skin (head to toe). Admittedly, he had nice, supple and smooth skin. Too bad the body odour was...unique, to say the least. An interesting side effect was that his bath rings looked like geological strata (I don't think he ever cleaned his bathroom even once, altogether another story).
Another chap was one of these "off the chart" types. I remember him more as being a living embodiment or reincarnation of Charles Manson with the insights of Stephen Hawking. Wild hair. Wild beard. And really, REALLY wild eyes. Decided that willpower is stronger than neurobiology and picked up a heroin habit "out of purely intellectual curiosity". Died from an OD at the age of 17 while working on his Masters.
Last but not least was someone I worked with. Typical neckbeard alpha-geek. To say that he is an insufferable tool is an understatement, but he was smart enough not to let his personality quirks push him into the unemployment queue. However, some of his quirks did cross a line. Unrepentant sinophile. Now, I understand that there are many, many Caucasian males that suffer from having a decided preference for Asian women (AKA "Yellow fever"), he took it to the ne plus ultra. I think HR had to tell him to stop pestering the female Asian staff to pose for various photographs. Then, there was his unfortunate habit of personal dress. Whilst I would enjoy wearing walking shorts to the office during the summer months, he too would do the same, albeit with too-small jogging shorts. Really, there is nothing like seeing a testicle bust loose while having a meeting with a large client. It suddenly makes a PowerPoint presentation become a presentation about something else entirely. Most people were mortified beyond description. Shortly thereafter, he left on a sabbatical that has yet to conclude (This was almost 10 years ago). The unfortunate side effect was there was a blanket ban on the wearing of shorts in the office, which considering what had happened was completely understandable. (I just started wearing a kilt to prove a point. Being of Scottish descent does have a few advantages)
I would not trade anything I have to be any of those three. They simply have more intellectual capability than I do, but there is more to life than being the smartest person in the room. Sometimes, being "normal" is not such a bad thing when you consider the implications of being "abnormal".
...your writing skills weren't at like '12th grade' by the time you left college. :)
He seems to have all the perks of intelligence without the madness and autistic baggage.
We could use more genius among the population and learn alot from how his brain is wired. (Detect and cure autism, for example)
He lost his genius cred in my book, when he decided to pursue a martial art that focuses on a combat range (ie kicking) which is the hardest to maintain. The school yard bullies can eat up for breakfast.
I'm not talking about the giant creatures from Doug McClure movies, but... well, yes those as well... life is a funny thing. It generates sports and anomalies. I applaud this little guy, but he is no more a representative of the human race than that giant crab, from any Doug McClure flick, is a crustacean spokesperson. Society was progressed in leaps and bounds. Nowadays? If he avoids getting papped to death, he may achieve obscurity in research. Like most scientists.
If he can't read by 2, he's a failure.
and how do you say "whoop dee fucking doo" in it?
These people are the exception rather than the rule. Not only their intelligence but their accelerated-education path.
Most above-average people are stuck on a slow path, in the class-room with the normal and dumb. Depending on family life, this allows social skills to flourish. Being smart, they can be above average without trying, which is all society allows most of the time. It teaches them to reach a mediocre skill-set then stop.
By the same token, how many geniuses do we hear about? Those who are labelled geniuses and given extra education achieve very little. The pressure to perform is also a pressure for perfect altruism by saving the world. I can think of no reason why very smart equals totally selfless. These children tend to sacrifice their sexual/social experiences in the name of intelligence. Being told they can 'save the world' would create entitlement issues but there don't seem to be any obvious examples. Such a prediction will invariably fail because geniuses, like most people aren't motivated by other people's interests.
With that list of accomplishments it reads more like he'll be inventing Quantum Leaping soon and travelling within his own life time.
Shocking.
Show off.
Is that he sincerely gets to be himself someday, not a publicity stunt. If he's that smart and can survive with that intelligence into adulthood he should truly be amazing. I mean, eventually he will figure out that 90 percent of 'adults' are totally id and that is SOOO depressing. Good luck kid.
That would be legen... wait for it...
The real ones actually start college and leave quickly to start their own companies and work directly in a field they love and have a passion for in this world. People that can think quickly and problem solve anything are the real bright ones in this world.
I'm one of those young-ish MD degree people. High school grad age 17, BA computer science age 18, MS computer science age 19, MD age 23. Medical school was rough. Everybody else in my class had so much more life experience to draw on, which gives you better perspective about aging, disease, family issues and the like. Also, it was hard at age 19 to relate personally to my classmates who were married, had kids, etc. -- or the patients who might be four times my age. I learned how to do it, and got reasonably good at it, but it was hard.
In the end, I gave up clinical practice and went back into computer science. +1 to the poster who said "insert-name-of-faceless-corporation". I work at Google now. There are lots of smart people here. :-)
1) the grand unified theory of physics.
2) an economic system that is fair, allows for balanced development and does not cause crises.
3) a programming language that allows a compiler the sophistication of human reasoning in order to catch as many bugs as possible.
Now, if these geniouses can make progress in any of the above, they would offer a real good service to humanity.
The tool, intelligence, must be coupled with an intensely accented motivation array to bring about a "genius." Maybe that accent is mental illness. Maybe not. But something other than pure intelligence must be present for the merely intelligent person to excel. And this guy doesn't have it. If he did, we'd be marvelling at his creations right now, not how quickly he learned the creations of true geniuses. One more "genius" for the "excellent mediocrity" bin of life.
E Proelio Veritas.
According to one of my favorites songs, a true story of a kid from the town I grew up in a number of years ago, after graduating college, the kid decided to go back to junior high. http://www.broadjam.com/artists/songs.php?artistID=35045&mediaID=271694
Carla Ulbrich's 'Boy Wonder':
I was 11 years old when I finished my degree
Got my picture in the paper and my story on TV
To be so young and so amazing took a genius they were sure
I was the center of attention and my future was secure
Chorus:
I'm the boy wonder They all know my name
I'm the boy wonder but still I feel the same
They talk about boy wonder and the promise that it brings
But I'm the boy wonder and it doesn't mean a thing
So they asked me how I did it was I born a prodigy
I tell them anyone can do it if they live a life like me
Buried in the books while the others played outside
I learned all about scholastics and a father's selfish pride
CHORUS
I was told it was an honor when I made the Guinness book
So I opened up a copy I just thought I'd have a look
My perusal was revealing I still see it in my sleep
Haunted by the volume of the company I keep:
The largest ball of twine and the longest fingernails ...
People struck by lightning The fastest moving snails
Tallest totem pole and the longest loaf of bread
Most objects juggled while turning pirouettes
Largest jigsaw puzzle and the biggest piece of cheese
My years of study had earned a place with these
So I forfeited my childhood living in the public eye
And a paragraph in Guinness was my consolation prize
Now my choices lay before me with the future open wide
So when I graduated college... I went back to Junior High
I'm the boy wonder but now I've changed my name
Because I've always wondered what it's like to be the same
No longer living under the attention that it brings
Yeah I was the boy wonder and it didn't mean a thing
The unfortunate thing about people of this caliber is that they start off really great, then fade out into monotony, never going further then what they are paid to.
How about we develop a program that allows them to push the boundaries without worrying about regular life,
unless of course they want to have a regular life as well....I know it can be lonely in those instances,
so we should do our best to keep them well maintained socially so they do not feel the need to digress from their potential.
I hope the parents are well connected, it would be great to have him in a place like NASA or other scientific domains, cancer research, etc...