Some Famous Child Prodigies

[Iconoclast IX]

I was inspired to create this thread when I stumbled upon an old Russian description of ILIs, which frequently referred to them as "child prodigies." Now, obviously, not all child prodigies are ILIs, nor are all ILIs child prodigies, but regardless, I have become interested in the types of some famous people who were child prodigies. So, go ahead and try to determine the type of each.

Norbert Wiener, mathematician


Terrence Tao, mathematician


Blaise Pascal, mathematician


Brian Greene, theoretical physicist, mental calculator


John von Neumann, mathematician (among other things)


Daniel Tammet, mental calculator, linguistic savant


H.P. Lovecraft, writer


Pablo Picasso, visual artist


Jeremy Bentham, philosopher, social reformer


John Stuart Mill, philosopher, social reformer


Bobby Fischer, grandmaster, chess prodigy


Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician


Ruth Lawrence, mathematician


William James Sidis, polymath, mathematician, scholar


Paul Erdos, mathematician



Note: Unfortunately, I did not get around to musical prodigies, as there are far to many for me to list.

[Exodus]

Brian Greene: ENTp or possibly ESFj. There's a great interview between him and Lee Smolin (INTp) about string theory. Unfortunately Greene has become a kind of string-theory poster boy.
Pablo Picasso: ENTp or another EP
Paul Erdos: ENFp

I'm curious about Fischer's type. He has quite a distinctive personality, no?

[Exodus]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5670911

Note how Greene argues that "you can't predict the rate of progress" of a theory. And of course there is the larger debate based on Ti/Te values: whether mathematical elegance is enough to justify a scientific theory such as string theory.

[FDG]

Norbert Wiener, mathematician - ILI

Brian Greene, theoretical physicist, mental calculator - ILE

John von Neumann, mathematician - LIE

H.P. Lovecraft, writer - IEI

Pablo Picasso, visual artist - EIE, ESE

John Stuart Mill, philosopher, social reformer - LSI

Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician - LII

William James Sidis, polymath, mathematician, scholar - SLE

Paul Erdos, mathematician - pure Ne

[Exodus]

If Erdos and Picasso were rational, I...I don't know. I guess I would have to kill myself.

[Steve]

Brian Greene is Ti INTj.

[marooned]

If Erdos and Picasso were rational, I...I don't know. I guess I would have to kill myself.

Don't do that.



This picture makes Picasso seem more irrational to me. Wasn't happy with the pictures of Erdos online...

[Ms. Kensington]

Norbert Wiener, - INTp

Terrence Tao, Te/Fi p

Blaise Pascal, INTj

Brian Greene, - ENxp

John von Neumann, looks INFp to me.

Daniel Tammet, ENFj or ISTp (hey im running with THA's article saying they are the most similar looking conflictor pair out there)

H.P. Lovecraft, INTp ?

Pablo Picasso, irrational, probably ISxp

Jeremy Bentham, lol. that portrait looks STp.

John Stuart Mill, Always thought of him as LII but i dont know.

Bobby Fischer, ?

Carl Friedrich Gauss looks xNTj

Ruth Lawrence, she looks like Mcnew. Ne/Si

William James Sidis, looks warm.. i suppose ESTp works.

Paul Erdos, he looks like he came off the socioniko ESTj page. but, hes squinting.

[Ms. Kensington]

Brian Greene is Ti INTj.

your typings seem sort of different. have you been working on a theory in your absence.

[FDG]

If Erdos and Picasso were rational, I...I don't know. I guess I would have to kill myself.

I don't really think that Fe dominants come off as particularly "rational"

[Phaedrus]

I know too little of most of the listed people to be sure of their types, but I have seen one or two documentaries about Daniel Tammet, and I am pretty sure he is an INTp. Ms. Kensington's suggestion ENFj is of course totally out of the question.

I know a lot about Bobby Fischer though. There was a time when I thought he could be INTj, and that typing would perhaps better explain his playing style, which was rather "static". But INTp is also a not unlikely type for Fischer, and recently I have sort of switched back to that type as the most likely for him. He is certainly an IT type, but he is not ISTj. ISTp might not be totally impossible, but the real battle is between INTj and INTp in his case. Fischer definitely had Asperger's Syndrome -- at least that is impossible to doubt.

[Ezra]

Blaise Pascal, mathematician

He really lost it when it came to developing his theory. I mean, Pascal's Wager. What. The Fuck. What a shit theory.

John Stuart Mill, philosopher, social reformer

Mental breakdown at fourteen. Father forced him to learn Ancient Greek, amongst other languages. He was at least bilingual before he'd reached his teens.

[Rick]

Norbert Wiener, mathematician - ILI

Brian Greene, theoretical physicist, mental calculator - ILE

John von Neumann, mathematician - LIE

Agree.

[meatburger]

Yeah ive seen Brian Greene on PBS nova the elegant universe. I agree ILE is the most likely. Ezra i agree about Pascals Wager, its a crock. Basically it forces people to believe in god out of fear of going to hell.

My ISFp friend lent me HP Lovecrafts Omnibus Vol 1: "At the Mountains of Madness". The language was extreme but i found it was an amazing story.