What Happened to Those Genius Teenagers Later?
Ning Bo: after graduating in 1982, he stayed at the university to teach, with fairly ordinary qualifications. In 2003 he became a monk, later returned to secular life, and now works in psychological counseling. His life changed many times, perhaps as a kind of inner exploration.
Xie Yanbo: he had weak self-care and communication abilities, and once fell out with his advisor. Later he went to the United States for a PhD and again had conflict at Princeton with his advisor, Nobel physics laureate Philip Anderson. Because a shooting by a Chinese student had just happened at the time, USTC worried something might happen, brought him back to China, and kept him as a teacher. The world of genius is sometimes not easy to fit into social rules.
Liang Zhongjie: his “genius” was cultivated under his father’s strict education. But after entering USTC, with that control gone, he became obsessed with stamp collecting and borrowed money everywhere for it. For two consecutive years, the total score across five courses was only 100 points, and he was eventually expelled. Perhaps talent needs the right guidance to show its true value.
Dong Ruitao: he chose to develop in the United States and now works in software development in California. Perhaps this is a more stable path.
The “prodigies” from the youth class went toward completely different lives. Some became psychological counselors, some stayed to teach, some were eliminated by society, and some put down roots overseas. Talent matters, but how to walk the road of life is the real challenge.
#youth-class #price-of-genius #many-forms-of-life