An interesting article about the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) program and their findings.
Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), which would transform how gifted children are identified and supported by the US education system. As the longest-running current longitudinal survey of intellectually talented children, SMPY has for 45 years tracked the careers and accomplishments of some 5,000 individuals, many of whom have gone on to become high-achieving scientists. The study's ever-growing data set has generated more than 400 papers and several books, and provided key insights into how to spot and develop talent in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and beyond.
With the first SMPY recruits now at the peak of their careers, what has become clear is how much the precociously gifted outweigh the rest of society in their influence. Many of the innovators who are advancing science, technology and culture are those whose unique cognitive abilities were identified and supported in their early years through enrichment programmes such as Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth—which Stanley began in the 1980s as an adjunct to SMPY. At the start, both the study and the centre were open to young adolescents who scored in the top 1% on university entrance exams.Pioneering mathematicians Terence Tao and Lenhard Ng were one-percenters, as were Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and musician Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga), who all passed through the Hopkins centre.
[...] Such results contradict long-established ideas suggesting that expert performance is built mainly through practice—that anyone can get to the top with enough focused effort of the right kind. SMPY, by contrast, suggests that early cognitive ability has more effect on achievement than either deliberate practice or environmental factors such as socio-economic status. The research emphasizes the importance of nurturing precocious children, at a time when the prevailing focus in the United States and other countries is on improving the performance of struggling students. At the same time, the work to identify and support academically talented students has raised troubling questions about the risks of labelling children, and the shortfalls of talent searches and standardized tests as a means of identifying high-potential students, especially in poor and rural districts.
[...] Although gifted-education specialists herald the expansion of talent-development options in the United States, the benefits have mostly been limited so far to students who are at the top of both the talent and socio-economic curves.
[Also covered by]: NATURE
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @12:11PM
If there's anything that indicates a successful business, its multiple bankruptcies.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:34PM
In some industries, big companies start lots of projects, some of which may fail and/or be cancelled. In others, people spawn little companies (precisely to isolate the liability), some of which may fail and/or be closed - or sold. Multiple people in tech point out that if you're not failing now and then, you're not trying anything new and inventive enough. OTOH, one must consider who gets left holding the bag - or who gets left having lost money (including having not gotten paid what they were promised) - when the bottom falls out. When big companies start projects and cancel them, the people get shifted to other projects. When little companies go bankrupt, the WHOLE IDEA is to get out from under commitments.
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Friday September 09 2016, @02:01AM
If there's anything that indicates a successful business, its multiple bankruptcies.
It's all the rage in silicon valley.
"I have 3 startups under my belt and I'm going for a fourth"
Really is just saying I failed 3 times and lost a lot of other peoples money.. But this time it really is a good idea, honest.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:40AM
Actually, if anything indicates success it's owning a massive private airplane with some of the best construction in the world.