Young genius Carson Huey-You will earn his bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University on Saturday (May 13).
“I’m studying physics but in particular quantum physics eventually going into research and teaching after graduate school,” said Huey-You, 14, to Dallas-Fort Worth CBS affiliate News Channel 11.
He was 10 when Professor Magnus Rittby took him under his wing.
“Of course I had reservations,” Rittby told Channel 11. “I’ve never seen a 10-year-old apply for college. But he was a bright kid and I just thought it was worth fighting for him to get admitted and try it.”
By the time he crossed path with his professor, Huey-You was used to attending classes with academic peers that were much older. After being homeschooled, Huey-You entered the 8th grade at the tender age of five years old.
His younger brother Canaan Huey-You,11, will graduate high school this week. The younger Huey-You has followed Carson’s footsteps with respect to his school choice and plans to study physics and astronomy at TSU.
Information from dfw-cbslocal.com contributed to this report.
He's probably going to end up a tenured professor or something. I'm not interested in that. I want to make real money. You don't have to be a child prodigy for that.
William Morris
>tfw will be buried in history as a bust because pure academics lend nothing to ability.
Would be better for him to have pursued his endeavors extracurricularly and done something with himself, or gone through puberty or something
Nolan Hughes
You always hear in the news about kids like that, but how much of them really end up successful?
Camden Foster
>His younger brother Canaan Huey-You,11, will graduate high school this week. The younger Huey-You has followed Carson’s footsteps with respect to his school choice and plans to study physics and astronomy at TSU. aight a few thoughts, if this is real
firstly those boys have some black ancestry (their mom i presume) secondly she's divorced, she's a single mom thirdly and most notably, not only the older brother is graduating physics at age 14, but the younger brother is graduating HS at age 11
the third thing should be very very unlikely to happen - if you have a very very smart kid and then have another one that also turns out this way don't get me wrong, both kids ought to be smart, but like this?
anyway, i hope they can handle the spot light and pressure as well as erik demaine has - and be as cool and productive as he is at least
erik started uni at the ripe age of 12, canada, dalhousie uni - later became professor at MIT - at age 21
Nathaniel Hughes
>I want to make real money >you don't have to be a child prodigy >engineering student You are right, because you have to be stupid and naive like a regular child to want something like that
Jonathan Walker
Ted Kaczynski went on to become very successful
Chase Brown
You can't be stupid to make money, but you definitely don't have to be a genius. Making money is a lot about doing, not thinking. The thinking is done in the process. Sort of like with programming: you start with no ideas, but in the process you start thinking of stuff you could do with it.
Camden Powell
>End up crazy and jailed
Yeah sure
Blake Rogers
I think that the constant attention these prodigies get mirrors that of what parents give to their children when they are young except on a bigger scale. You have high expectations of a child and constantly tell them they are destined for greatness or that they will change the world, but perhaps it's that pressure, and your determination to make that a reality, that causes the child to fall. What if our attempts to shape a child exactly how we want them to be are exactly why child prodigies don't rise to the occasion?
Jack Harris
imo it's evidence that the current school system in america just wastes peoples' time
i'd be willing to bet a lot of young kids can understand math and physics if we would just fucking teach it to them instead of bullshitting around
Cameron Smith
yeah but at the same time I'll never be a cute anime girl either and that bothers me alot more
Daniel Taylor
kek
Andrew Edwards
>I’m studying physics but in particular quantum physics
this is how i know he hasn't even studied classical mechanics yet
Wyatt Gomez
do undergrad physics students study classical mechanics? i'm guessing even high school students study that a little bit
if yes, then he has studied it
Lucas Bell
Having a Chinese dad has its benefits apparently.
Easton Davis
What high school students study is basic Newtonian mechanics. This is your "how fast does the ball fall" physics. Classical mechanics cover more dynamic problems using Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism, which are beyond what most high school students can even handle.
Oliver Barnes
I'll never be a child prodigy, but at least I've had sex
Evan Sanders
Obviously, it's affirmative action. I mean he's a negroid.
Parker Sanders
You bring a good point. It's not likely for this same story to repeat TWICE. Homeschooling gone right, I think. These kids are mostly homeschooled, interacting with the public school system only to attain credentials and connections.
We're going to start seeing a revolution of nature v. nurture as people start connecting that dots and figuring out that there are ways of getting kids to become invested in figuring out the world on their own, unlocking their full potential.
I can tell you for one thing, that miracle sure as hell isn't happening in Texas's public schools lmfao.
Cooper Davis
You don't need much classical mechanics really. chapters 1,2,8 and maybe 9 of goldstein are enough.
These child prodigy stories rarely lead anywhere. Being precocious doesn't make you a genius. Revolutionizing the way people do things makes you a genius. If you know any math or physics beyond undergrad level you'll understand how basic this stuff is. Like the Barnett kid back then. All he did was some calc material out of stewart. Most high school kids can do that. Doing it a few years earlier than most people doesn't mean much, especially when you realize most of these prodigies got specific tutoring or support to do it.
V.I. Arnold was teaching children how to prove Abel's theorem. See maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/papers/abel.pdf. Even though this is amazing, no one ever talks about it. This is because it's far beyond most people so you can't really talk it up to the public as being genius. Ultimately all these stories are just attention whoring from parents who want to secure their children's academic success by standing out from the crowd and taking advantage of the public's ignorance, whether they realize it or not.
Dylan Ward
>These child prodigy stories rarely lead anywhere.
What are your standards for "anywhere"? JS Mill, Norbert Weiner, and Terrance Tao were all child prodigies and they've done amazing work. Don't let the cases of WJ Sidis, Jacob Barnett, etc., unfairly color your perception of child prodigies.
I don't mean those child prodigies like Tao who were doing impressive stuff. What I mean is the stories of kids being prodigies for doing fairly simple math or physics. Because most people know little math and physics, doing calculus seems very impressive because "that's like the highest level of math", when really it's very simple stuff. Sure they're doing it much earlier than most people, which is impressive, it usually leads to nowhere great. I blame the lack of future success on the ego gained from the public and their parents. I wish there were actual math and physics programs that takes these children who are certainly going to be doing math and physics later on, and teach them actually advanced stuff like algebraic topology or quantum field theory. I know places like france or russia had programs like this so I don't see why not. Most of these talented kids get pushed into IMO and IPO, which are useless in my opinion. Their ability to learn is wasted on problems which are hard because they are designed to be, rather than problems that are hard by necessity like in advanced math and physics. Handing them rudin or herstein would do more for their growth than years in those camps.
Chase Ortiz
child prodigy or homeschooling is more efficient if done correctly?
how much wasted potential is out there?
Jason Cruz
>IMO and IPO
I see very smart people jerking off over this stuff, but I just can't bring myself to take it seriously. I know it's technically not rote memorization, but it smells like it.
Ethan Richardson
>and people say this is unrealistic
Christopher Sullivan
>they're not learning "actually advanced stuff" like "quantum field theory", just simple math and physics >all this rationalizing the article specifically mentions that he's studying quantum. seriously though the kid is fucking 14 and finishing a legitimate b.s. in physics. that means he'll be finishing his PhD by 19 or so at which point you'll still be whining about how you think surely it was just handed to him.
>b-but it won't lead anywhere special the vast majority of physics degrees don't lead anywhere special. over 150k physics degrees awarded in 2015, what percentage lead to anything worthwhile? aps.org/programs/education/statistics/bachelors.cfm your expectation that this kid should be the next einstein is unfounded.
tl;dr stay mad piggot.
Blake Davis
Why do you think I'm mad at him? I'm worried that his potential will be wasted. I wish him well. When I said qft I meant that I wished there were programs that took kids like him and truly challenge them with interesting and useful content. That's why I mentioned my distaste for IMO and PMO since I feel they waste young talent on problems that don't really matter to anyone beyond proving themselves "superior" to the others taking the tests. Personally I would love to teach tons of stuff like group theory or quantum mechanics to talented kids like him. I don't care about academic success or fame, I just want to learn things and help others learn. I'm sorry my intent came across to you as jealousy. I've actually seen posts like my own when I was younger and thought the same as you. Maybe you're right and it's just arrogance that I think calc and quantum are simple now, simple enough to teach to children with enough patience and attention.
Logan Russell
i don't know about all this, but kids can do better in terms of things they learn, attitude and discipline imo we can be more efficient
i had a physics teacher in HS who went to china and talked about how hard they work and study - and they get results
Jackson Taylor
suicide isn't a good result
Jeremiah Turner
It's still fucking unrealistic, but mostly because you can't possibly fit so much in just one year and not extremely dilute it or expect the kid to not kill himself.
Whoever made it greatly understimates the true depth of the subjects he's talking about. I mean, Quantum Mechanics are taught in the 11th grade, but PDEs on 12th grade? You can't possibly learn QM without PDEs, or at last not without reducing it to something beyond recognizable.
Hudson Ramirez
There is a very strong correlation between high performance on math competitions like the IMO and Putnam, and becoming a top notch math researcher.
Some contest winners don't go on to be mathematicians at all, or some go on to be lesser known. And some great researchers never won contests (though most of them did well if they tried)
Parker Perry
>Texas Christian University It's a creationist school. Move on.
Jose Peterson
>rise to the occasion we had a saying in the military. "You will never rise to the occasion. You will always sink to the level of your training"
Evan Wilson
>I mean, Quantum Mechanics are taught in the 11th grade, but PDEs on 12th grade? You can't possibly learn QM without PDEs, or at last not without reducing it to something beyond recognizable. Dude, I took quantum chemistry and theoretical spectroscopy before I had linear algebra. Accepting your lecturers' words as fact and piecing together the vocabulary and the usage thereof lets you understand context.
There's a very valid argument to be made that it doesn't cultivate deeper understanding. However, there's also an equally valid, if untested argument to be made that intensive learning (not truly deep, but attempts at fostering deep understanding) can lead to tunnel vision and lack of ability to relate the greater holistic picture of the sciences.
That sounds wishy-washy, I know, but my meaning is, that seeing dozens upon dozens of pieces of the puzzle helps understand what the puzzle IS, it lets you see the framework in which you're working.
I think it's important that things be studied concurrently, though, so that list of topics still seems unrealistic and non-conducive to proper learning, but basic QM can be understood if one is willing to accept that one will have to analyze and understand conclusions rather than derive those conclusions oneself.
