Going as Former Gifted Child for Halloween and the whole costume is just gonna be people asking “What are you supposed to be?” And me saying “I was supposed to be a lot of things.”
Christopher Langan
Chris Langan became famous when television networks interviewed him for allegedly scoring ~170 on an IQ test.
Langan has not produced any acclaimed works of art or science. In this way, he differs significantly from outsider intellectuals like Paul Erdös, Stephen Wolfram, Nassim Taleb, etc.
But Langan is clearly a smart guy. He probably cleared 140+ on an IQ test. He speaks like a book. He won $250,000 on a major trivia show.
Maybe that's why this interview breaks my heart. The resentment, the eugenics, the hubris -- Langan earned a reputation as "Alex Jones with a thesaurus" and "the Steven Seagal of intellectuals".
I don't want you to hate this guy. Yes, he actively promotes poisonous rhetoric -- ignore that for now. This is about you. Reflect on all your setbacks, your unmet potential, and the raw unfairness of it all. It sucks, and you mustn't let that bitterness engulf you. You can forgive history itself; you can practice gratitude towards an unjust world. You need no credentials, nor awards, nor secrets, nor skills to do so. You are allowed to like yourself.
Langan had a rough childhood:
Langan's biological father left before he was born, and is said to have died in Mexico. Langan's mother married three more times, and had a son by each husband. Her second husband was murdered, and her third killed himself. Langan grew up with the fourth husband Jack Langan, who has been described as a "failed journalist" who used a bullwhip as a disciplinary measure and went on drinking sprees, disappearing from the house, locking the kitchen cabinets so the four boys could not get to the food in them. The family was very poor; Langan recalls that they all had only one set of clothes each. The family moved around, living for a while in a teepee on an Indian reservation, then later in Virginia City, Nevada.
Trauma never excuses nasty behavior, and that's not the point. This is still about you. You can learn about yourself through others' stories, and empathy is scariest when you confront similar nastiness within yourself.
You will never have enough IQ, nor money, nor time, nor energy. It's no excuse. You are enough -- no, no, you are plenty.
Kim Ung-yong
Instead of competing in real games, some people construct insignificant/winnable sub-games. These people are called "scrubs". They want to compete, but they cannot bear losing; they want to win, but they are too risk-averse and too undisciplined to excel in fair play. People who commit to such worthless/unwinnable games are called "losers".
But you forget that participation is optional. You perpetually sear your bespoke definition of "success" directly onto your forehead. You've been enduring your pain for so long that you can't remember how it feels to be free from expectation, from ambition, from guilt, from inferiority, from -- no, you don't have to do any of this. You may do whatever you want, and you may do whatever you want.
According to his parents, Kim Ung-yong started calculus at age 3, scored 210 on an IQ test and started studying physics at Hanyang University at age 4, spoke five languages by age 5, and received an invitation to work at NASA by age 7.
In 2010, this is how Kim reflected on his childhood:
At that time, I led my life like a machine--I woke up, solved the daily assigned equation, ate, slept, and so forth. I really didn't know what I was doing, and I was lonely and had no friends.
As an adult, Kim deliberately chose pragmatism over abstraction. He studied civil engineering. He worked as a middle-manager in the Compensation Department at Chungbuk Development Corporation.
Kim Ung-yong rejected the title of "failed genius":
I'm trying to tell people that I'm happy the way I am. But why do people have to call my happiness a failure? […] Some think that high IQ people can be omnipotent, but that's not true. Look at me, I don't have musical talent nor do I excel at sports. […] Society shouldn't judge anyone with unilateral standards – everyone has different learning levels, hopes, talents and dreams and we should respect that.
In 2014, Kim joined Chungbuk National University as an associate professor. In 2020, he donated 15,000 books from his personal collection to Uijeongbu City for public use.
But this is still about you. There exist no certificates nor trophies nor titles that can quench your thirst for permanence. If you worship human intelligence, 210 IQ is not enough. It is only plenty if you let it be.