Child prodigies don't turn out to be geniuses.

Apparently if your child is a prodigy, you shouldn't have high expectations for when they're an adult.

According to a book I'm reading called The genius in all of us : why everything you've been told about genetics, talent and IQ is wrong by David Shenk, there is no association between child prodigies and adult geniuses.

The author says the child prodigies DO turn out to be more successful than average - but almost all of them fail to make a comparable mark in the adult world.

"As a rule, child prodigies are not adult-level innovators but masters of technical skill; their spellbinding quality comes of of natural comparison with other children's skills, not because they truly compare to the best adult performers in their field." p51

He says that child prodigies and adult geniuses have different skills. A child prodigy typically masters technical skill - think of a 5 year old violinist. While an adult genius, develops some unique or creative way of thinking.

***

As a side note, he said that many young children today are as gifted as Wolfgang Amadeus was on the violin. Today, it's less exceptional because we know that a huge part of talent can be harnessed through the environment. We half expect there to be lots of young, talented violinists.

In Mozart's day, this was less understood.

I can actually feel myself getting dumber.

I've noticed lately that I can feel myself becoming less mentally sharp. I would love to blame this on lack of sleep, but the truth is I'm sleeping fine.

Maybe it's age? I'm not that old. But I do have the sense that I was much more mentally agile 10 years ago. I'm beginning to tell people the same stories over and over again. (I never used to do this. Now I no longer remember if I'd already told someone a particular story.)

I'm beginning to lose track of conversations. I don't recall this happening before. Just the other day we were having a technical conversation in our office, and I soon realized that much of the information went over my head.

I seem to be reaching my level of incompetence - as I basically have the same job as a did 10 years ago, and I realize that I'm very likely to have a similar job 10 years from now.

I'm beginning to notice there are younger people who have more success, smarts, money and talent than me. This certainly wasn't the case 10 years ago. (And to be honest, at this stage it's mostly older people who have more success, smarts, money, and talent. But the tide is slowly shifting.)

What does all this mean? It means that I've probably peaked, and it's going to be a slow decline from this day forward. Oh well. I had a good run.