
The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator - RockyMcNuts
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/the-boy-genius-of-ulan-bator.html?pagewanted=all
======
antimatter15
On the subject of MIT and MOOCs, it's pretty interesting that he's taking
solid-state chemistry (3.091), because this semester MIT is experimenting with
substituting problem sets and exams with proctored mini-assessments done
through MITx in addition to traditional (in-person) lecture and
recitations[1].

I haven't met Battushig, but I'm another MIT freshman in the same chemistry
class. After just the first full week of school, it's probably wise to reserve
judgement with regard to the 3.091 experiment- but it's been plagued with a
few problems (largely expected). For instance, MIT's administration isn't
ready to approve a fully-online credited class (and apparently hundreds of
upperclassmen were enrolled in the class in spite of schedule conflicts and no
intention to attend), so they're starting to take attendance. The testing
location is embedded within a kind of labyrinthine series of halls, and
there's frequently long lines because everyone tries to take the assessments
at the same time (they don't have enough Chromebooks to pass out, nor enough
seats available).

Anyway, I think the space of MOOCs is exciting, and so is the possibility of
meshing it with the traditional college experience.

[1]:
[http://web.mit.edu/3.091/www/3091.htm](http://web.mit.edu/3.091/www/3091.htm)

~~~
grinich
Sounds worse than TEAL. :(

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gexla
Silly title of course. I don't want to criticize the kid, I just hate the sort
of bullshit articles which have been screwing up my view of the world for my
entire life in an attempt to sell eyeballs.I'm happy for the kid getting
exposure which may end up with giving him an opportunity that few people in
this world get (even in the U.S.) That's the craziness of luck.

I will just go ahead and say that I would place myself more on the idiot end
of the spectrum rather than genius end. Yet, if a 15 year old kid were to show
off the same things I know, that kid would be praised as a genius. What I know
isn't rocket science, it's just a huge number of small, very easy things
learned from many hours of determination to learn something.

Unfortunately, I never had this determination for anything in school. I had a
stumble on the opening path to where I'm at today almost by accident. Perhaps
that's the difference between what this article is referring to as genius and
whatever this article might think of kids who aren't genius. Maybe the author
could give us a term for it.

Hacker news discussions have talked about the 10X programmer and how that
programmer perhaps should be paid 10x more than everyone else. But I agree
with the counter arguments that programmers who aren't contributing are
overpaid rather than the 10x programmer being underpaid.

I think we could apply this to schools as well. These kids aren't genius, but
rather, it's school's which are failing to help kids find their own path to
something they can be passionate for. The things this kid is doing may sound
like some big step for someone who is non technical, but it's amazing what
anyone can achieve with a bit of time and drive (and not having to deal with
the issues of poverty.)

~~~
chnx
"Battushig, then 15, became one of 340 students out of 150,000 to earn a
perfect score in Circuits and Electronics, a sophomore-level class at M.I.T.
and the first Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC"

This is a second year MIT course in a language that is not his native
language. While I agree with your sentiment about the use of the word genius,
I think it is misdirected here.

~~~
gexla
Give a 15 year old kid an entire summer vacation and some equipment to run
wild with a passion of building electronic gadgets and I bet you would be
surprised at what that kid could do. I'm not even sure English being a second
language would be as big of a barrier with a technical subject as other types
of courses would be. What's the word for computer in X language? There's a
good chance it's computer. That's a oversimplified silly example, but the
point is that some areas of study are more universal than others.

I cringe to think about how much time I had when I was that age that I didn't
put to good use. An sophomore in MIT might be challenged to find the time to
make the bed properly, let alone get lost in the pursuit of the subjects that
are covered in Circuits and Electronics. I was a horrible student in college,
not because I was dumb (okay, I take back what I said about me being an idiot,
I'm about average) but because I didn't manage my time properly. As a kid, I
didn't have that problem.

ETA: And as for the numbers of people who have taken that test, it's not like
it's the SAT or the required placement exam to get into a good college in
China. If there were truly big stakes attached to that exam then there would
be a lot more than 340 people out of 150,000 getting a perfect score.

Again, I'm happy for the kid. But I think the real story here is that kids can
accomplish a lot, we just need a way to get them engaged.

~~~
dgacmu
Um, just to be clear, gexla - 6.002 requires diffEq as background, as well as
physics E&M. I'd suggest that what he did is an extremely substantial
achievement for a 15 year old.

~~~
gexla
I didn't say this wasn't a substantial achievement. If it weren't a
substantial achievement, this article wouldn't have been written, MIT wouldn't
have noticed this kid and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

My question is, given the drive to do this, is this kid really outstanding or
is this something that many more kids are capable of doing?

Okay, clearly it's outstanding even if more kids are capable of doing this. It
takes a lot of effort to do something like this on your own free will, and
that's not something a lot of people are willing to do. Or, they just don't
see a reason for doing it. Getting noticed by MIT would be a great reason, but
it's difficult to connect the dots when when you are weighing your decision
based on rewards rather than passion.

Just saying, is it genius or is it working smart and hard for something that
you are driven to figure out? Genius is difficult to define. What is genius?
Is it something we are born with? Can we go from average to genius? If we have
to be born a genius, then case closed, the kid is special and untouchable. If
his accomplishment was working smart and hard, then that's more achievable,
even if it's something not many people are willing to do. Maybe it's a
combination of both, which is problematic because we then get to that vague
genius term again. ;)

Again, I think the schools need to figure out how to get more kids engaged.
Kids spend so much of their time at schools and then more time on homework
when they get home. The schools need to be able to make the most of this
substantial time they have with our children. Sure, it's not all on the
school. It has to be on the parent and the child as well. But the schools are
still a huge component.

~~~
Datsundere
you're basically saying you're lazy but don't want to admit it and possibly
jealous of this kid who worked hard.

>Again, I think the schools need to figure out how to get more kids engaged.

It's upto the kid to be responsible and learn things. If they don't care and
just want to fuck bitches, then it's his problem. You seem to have a big
resentment against your teachers but it's your problem that you're lazy.

~~~
gexla
I don't see how you could come to the conclusion that I'm jealous because he
worked hard. I have been praising the kid in every post I make. Also, I think
calling him a genius is doing an injustice to the work that he put in to get
the attention of MIT and the author of this article. It's as if calling him a
genius explains everything and suggests that he has some sort of natural
ability that other kids can't touch.

"Sorry, son, your friend is a genius and you aren't, there's nothing you can
do about it, now go back to plowing the field."

Screw that, I think lots of kids have this potential, they just haven't been
helped to find the beginning of the path.

As for me being lazy, maybe when I was in the K12 system. Today I'm self
taught, work from home freelance programmer. Aside from shipping code all day,
I have had to keep my skills relevant for the years I have been doing this.
I'm able to make my way doing this without living in my parent's basement. I
would say that makes me an expert at laziness and procrastination. Everyone
has these problems at times, but I have dealing with them down to a science,
or I would literally starve. Nobody will wait for me to get around to getting
my work done, if I'm not making reasonable progress, then I get replaced.
There is zero job security for a freelancer.

I suppose in some ways that makes me a bit like this kid. So, I'm rooting for
him. I hope he gets into MIT. I also hope that other kids don't take that
genius thing seriously and realize that they could do the same thing if they
put in the effort.

Also, while I hated the K12 system, I loved my teachers. I can credit many of
them for the successes I have had in life. The overall system still sucks
though.

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josh33
I lived in Mongolia for two years as a missionary and taught ESL at schools
every day. The schools systems there are what you would expect from a 3rd
world country but it never ceased to amaze me how many bright, gifted
Mongolians that had innate desire to learn and improve their situation, even
with very troubling situations at home.

~~~
haldujai
'even with' might actually be 'because of' the troubling situations. There is
nothing like hardship to motivate someone to improve their station in life.

~~~
corporalagumbo
Don't dismiss the power of a generally constructive, optimistic culture.

~~~
lignuist
While I agree with your argument in general, you obviously haven't been to
Mongolia lately. The average Mongolian is dumping his plastic waste into the
nature, trying to get a car and TV set as large as possible and is extremely
envious if his neighbour is accomplishing this goals earlier than himself.

Really, I wasn't able to find a place in Mongolia, where I couldn't spot a
plastic bottle on the ground and that's not what I would describe as
constructive culture. However, Mongolians can be really warm people, but the
society is totally broken at the moment. This country is currently
transitioning from socialism to turbo-capitalism.

[http://english.news.mn/content/96843.shtml](http://english.news.mn/content/96843.shtml)

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solmri
Same story is of my senior Amol Bhave. He attended the Circuits and
Electronics course from MITx, but when he found that they are not going to
offer Signals and Systems course (the next in the series), he himself built a
platform with course material from OCW. And, he got in MIT Class of 2017.

[1]
[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5a4b932-924c-11e2-851f-00144feabd...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5a4b932-924c-11e2-851f-00144feabdc0.html)

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aheilbut
It's not really the MOOC that enabled this; it's that principal who deserves
the kudos.

~~~
jgamman
both are needed for this kind of outcome. also, kudos it sounds to Mongolia
education and development departments (?) - leapfrogging into the 21st century
by investing in modern infrastructure - trust me, in many parts of rural NZ 3
MB download is a fantasy!

~~~
lignuist
Just returned from Mongolia a few days ago... In most rural areas in Mongolia
3MB downstream is not existent too. Actually I would say it is only available
in the capital Ulaan Baatar. 3G and Wimax is available with a little luck in
the populated areas of the country, but the connections are not very reliable.
I experienced outages on a daily basis. Personally I would say that
educational resources in different forms are available to those who are
willing to search for it AND know the english language (which is only the case
for a very small fraction of the Mongolian population). I'm not so sure if the
(extremely corrupt) Mongolian government is investing wisely in modern
infrastructures (streets in Mongolia are usually dangerously terrible)... it's
more that the population is very interested in shiny smartphones and having a
working network is a prerequisite to make them work. In such a huge country, a
wireless network is probably the fastest way, to get people connected. But if
the outcome of this is that a few brilliant people are taking their chances to
get into higher education, then the government probably made correct decisions
by accident.

~~~
retroafroman
When I was working there 5ish years ago the government claimed the whole
country had fiber connections, but in reality they had just terminated the
fiber connection at each village post office and left actually connecting the
last mile up to private companies or cities. Which meant it wasn't available
outside the densely populated center of the capital.

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Toenex
Can anyone tell me what the correlation is between being proclaimed a child
'Genius' and you're impact on society when you reach maturity? There must have
been studies looking to see if these kids actually go on the significantly
progress their field. My concern is that we might do these kids a disservice
by accelerating their education in such a narrow way.

~~~
ihnorton
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_of_Mathematically_Precoci...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_of_Mathematically_Precocious_Youth)

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mathattack
I find this interesting because this view of online education is the opposite
of cheap education for the masses. It shows online education as a means to
find the prodigies around the world.

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seclorum
He needs to get help starting a hackerspace.

[http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/](http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/)

There is no better way to treat Genius than to let it propagate, and no better
way to propagate knowledge, socially, than a hacker space. Sure, he could try
to go to school - and he should - but getting others involved in his hacker
projects is a lot more achievable.

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philangist
I'm really glad for the kid, but was anybody else concerned by the fact that
he doesn't listen to music? Or that he dismissed the Harry Potter books
because they had no objective gain for him? Whatever happened to having fun
for the sake of fun..? But I guess when you're a boy genius you have a
different definition of fun.

~~~
seclorum
I was impressed by his lack of interest in Harry Potter, as I consider it a
pox on modern culture, but saddened by his lack of interest in music. To each,
their own .. but I hope he discovers something frivolous and trivial, whether
its music or trashy fiction, at some point in his life to enjoy. Genius
without frivolity is often a fast road to torture and anguish, a fact that
wouldn't be true if it weren't for the fact of the existence of both music,
and trashy fiction, in perpetuity ..

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arthurcolle
Perpetual overuse of the word 'genius' is enough to make one vomit.

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kostyk
MOOC is the future.

