Looking back at Chris Langan, the smartest man in the world grew up "dirt poor" and wasn't left with a whole lot of options for college. He chose Reed College in Oregon because of a full ride scholarship and had a rough time fitting in with a new culture. Chris grew up in the country, and was not accustomed to the rowdy coast which caused him to seek refuge away in his studies rather than in his peers. When his freshman year of college came to a close, his scholarship had to be renewed, pretty common, not unusual in the least. His mother refused to fill out the financial statement and Chris had to drop. After a year and a half of random jobs, construction worker and firefighter, Chris had regained his stance and decided to enroll at Montana State University. Immediately there was a problem. Chris had 2 classes that overlapped each other so he went to his school counselor to push one back to the afternoon. “Well, son, after looking at your transcript at Reed College, I see that you have yet to learn that everyone has to make sacrifices to get an education. Request denied.” Pretty bogus, huh? Chris gave up on college, dropped out of Montana, and got by working more construction, took factory jobs, civil service jobs, and was even a bouncer at a bar. In the meantime, in hopes of exposing his expertise, Langan read all about the things he would have learned in school and even developed something he called the “Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe”. Though he humbly admits, “I am a guy who has a year and a half of college, and at some point this will come to the attention of the editor, as he going to take the paper and send it off to the referees, and these referees are going to try to look me up, and they are not going to find me. They’ll say ‘this guy has a year and a half of college. How can he know what he’s talking about?’”
Robert Oppenheimer, the brain behind WWII’s atom bomb, went to Harvard and Campridge University had a dream of a being a physician. His tutor, Patrick Blackett, compelled the young Oppenheimer to attend an experimental physics event, which he despised. In retaliation, Oppenheimer mixed up some chemicals and attempted to poison Blackett who reported him to his authorities. Oppenheimer was put on probation. Not expelled, not jailed, just on probation. Langan would not have had such luck. Despite this, Oppenheimer was still chosen to lead the atom-bomb construction. At 38 and a theorist, he was chosen over senior engineers and experimenters, people who, debatably, should have handled the job. How was this possible? What did Oppenheimer have that Langan didn’t? A silver tongue. General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, was smitten by Oppenheimer’s interview, if I can call it that. In Langan’s shoes, Robert Oppenheimer would have been slammed up tight, but it was his assertiveness that got him out of that sticky situation and perhaps the most important job for winning the war.
Among higher-income families, it is common that adults’ drive wears down on their children. For instance, say a child from a higher income family fails a test. Their parent is more likely to redirect the blame for their child’s err onto the teacher, rather than a middle class or lower class parent who will more likely regard their child as responsible. Why? Upper class parents, respectively, have climbed the latter to success and have leveled with authority. They’ve had to work for a high position within their career, they have charisma and they know people’s limits. This passes onto their children who learn, push themselves, and respectfully question their authority.
Ok yes, this sounds pretty blunt, I'll admit, but please, take it up with Gladwell.
