CHAPTER 4 THE TROUBLE WITH GENIUSES PART 2 By: Jaime Alvarez, Dan Nastasi, Ryan Tubridy, and Max Weber

CHRIS LANGAN Chris Langan was a very smart man who didn’t have any trouble with school growing up. He had some problems with family, however. His family was very poor, and he didn’t grow up well at all. He had 4 different dads. His Birth father died in mexico, and his next two also died. His 4 th was a failed journalist. Langan and his family members were so poor, they had to wash their clothes naked because they only had one pair. After High School, Chris was given a full scholarship to Reed College, but his Mother didn’t sign the student aid form, so they took away his scholarship. This forced him to leave Reed with not many other options. After a year or two of working construction, he eventually attended Montana state University. Today, Chris is a wealthy, married man, and is considered one of the smartest men in America.

ROBERT OPPENHEIMER Oppenheimer was considered a genius by his parents and also by his teachers. He was conducting his own lab experiments by the third grade and in fifth grade he studied chemistry and physics. Oppenheimer attended Harvard University and afterwards went on to Cambridge University to obtain his doctorate in physics. He had struggled with depression his entire life and at Cambridge he became despondent and with his tutor forcing him to attend a minutiae of theoretical physics he became even more emotionally unstable and stole some chemicals from the lab and tried to poison his tutor. To this day nobody has figured out why. Oppenheimer’s punishment was he was only put on probation and had to attend regular sessions with a prominent psychiatrist 20 years later Oppenheimer was asked to help work on the Manhattan project (the making of the atomic bomb)

LANGAN VS. OPPENHEIMER They might have been as smart as each other but Oppenheimer was given much more opportunity because of the way he acted. Oppenheimer tried to kill his tutor and he wasn’t even kicked out of school, and all Langan did was not sign a paper and he was kicked out. Oppenheimer was treated differently because he knew how to act to get himself out of trouble Langan didn’t know how to do this, he didn’t act that like that he didn’t posses that savvy that could get him out of trouble. Oppenheimer grew up much wealthier than Langan, with a closer family, which gave him a better opportunity in some things.

LANGAN’S THOUGHTS ON HARVARD Langan said that he would not take a job as a professor at Harvard. He also said that Harvard is a glorified corporation and that they operate with a profit incentive. Says that the people who run Harvard “aren’t necessarily searching for truth and knowledge”. Langan says that Harvard controls what you do when you go there, and they try not to keep you out of line. Says it “comes down to what you want to do and what you feel is right vs. what the man says you can do to receive another paycheck”. Langan believes that all Harvard wants is your money.

THE IQ TEST The IQ test is a test that gives you a number. The higher the number you get on it, the more intelligence you have. Basically, it’s a test of intelligence. In this chapter, the IQ test is talked about a lot, by author Malcolm Gladwell. He explains why Chris Langan, and himself don’t really believe that the IQ test is a good way of judging ones intelligence. Many believe that people who grew up in a wealthy environment with a good family had an advantage on the IQ test, over somebody who grew up in a worse environment. This brings me to Gladwell’s point that states that the IQ test is not a good way to tell if someone is a genius. If you look at Chris Langan, and the way he was raised, he didn’t do as well on the IQ, so people didn’t take him as serious as Oppenheimer.

HOW THIS CHAPTER RELATES TO WEALTH, AND SOCIAL MEDIA This chapter doesn’t talk about social media at all, but after reading this chapter, some things we read reminded us of how social media acts today. Back when Oppenheimer and Langan were our age, They had less distractions, they didn’t have any cell phones or tablets that took their attention every day. Being wealthy was a big factor of somebody’s future, when the only thing that mattered was getting good grades, and becoming successful. Now, it seems to us that the most important thing to people is their cell phone, and social media. Its sad, but unfortunately true. Just like wealthier people had an advantage for Oppenheimer, and Langan, being wealthy enough to afford a smart phone is an advantage to society today. Our point is, the main advantage to a person is having money, and has been this way for a while. A very good way of becoming wealthy now a days is social media, and if you cant afford it, you are at a disadvantage.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS This chapter reminded me of the movie The Pursuit of Happiness The Movie is about a man named Chris Gardner and he was a Genius just like Chris Langan but for a while never is given the opportunity to succeed Chris Gardner was a genius who tried making a living by selling bone density scanners to doctors, but that failed miserably That was like Chris Langan going to college, it was a good idea and could have made him successful but because of other things that weren’t his fault it prevented him from being successful They both ended up being successful because of there intelligence and they overcame the obstacles that they faced

QUESTIONS 1. Gladwell says that many people and companies in our society “are convinced that those at the very top of the IQ scale have the greatest potential”. Do you Agree? 2.What is the significance of test scores vs. quality of student? 3. Do you think it is fair that Oppenheimer got a better opportunity than Langan?