Lives of gifted children: Star Theory

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Aspie1
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03 Oct 2015, 12:04 pm

This is something I've posted as a reply in a thread in the Parents' Forum some time ago. I dug up that post, and decided to spin it off as its own thread. Back then, my friend translated a Russian-language article for me, that he knew I'd enjoy. It talked about lives of gifted children and how they turned out as adults. (He used Google, so the English turned out to be somewhat broken, but I could still understand it all.) I applied my own aspie knowledge onto it, creating something called the Star Theory. It uses the Harvard classification of stars, and borrows heavily from my past fascination with astronomy. The classes are: O (hottest), B, A, F, G (the Sun), K, and M (coldest).
Here's some background info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_c ... sification

Class O stars are hottest and brightest. Only 0.00003% of all stars are in this class. They can be up to 100 times heavier than the Sun, and shine up to 100,000 times brighter. They correspond to extremely rare child prodigies. The kind who can recite Shakespearean sonnets at age 3, attend college age 8, and obtain a masters' degree before puberty kicks in. But those stars live 10 million years at most; that a very short lifespan for a star. Not unlike child prodigies who turn into financially broke adults, after expending all their mental energy before they're even old enough to drive, let alone drink. After all, once those child prodigies become adults, their less-bright peers catch up with them intellectually, while outstripping them emotionally far and wide.

Class B stars correspond to less-extreme child prodigies, but similar to class O. I think the "Little Man Tate" or "Forrest Gump" characters would be this type of star. While they're super-brilliant as kids in their respective movies, I highly doubt they'd have much success in life if they were real and became adults.

Class A stars. I think that was me. Also the "Lucas" movie character. I talked in complete, bureaucratic- or political-sounding phrases, at 8 months; my parents told me. (I must have picked up that style from evening news programs my parents watched.) I read adult encyclopedias in third grade. I pulled straight A's all the way through senior year of college. But now as adult, I work at a job I hate that slowly kills my soul, earn just enough to live comfortably without luxuries, and drink copious amounts of alcohol just to get through life.

Class F stars. They correspond to child geniuses, rather than prodigies. Unlike the above classes, they have just enough social cunning to make it ahead in life to an extent as adults, and acquire a fairly comfortable lifestyle. They were probably kids who were nice to us, but weren't interested in being friends. As adults, their lives are slightly better than "just OK".

Class G stars are like our Sun. Only 7.6% of stars are like this. They correspond to your socially successful geeks, like the founders of Apple, Facebook, and Google. Also the famous historical scientists and inventors. They probably had "just OK" lives as children, but lucked out as adults, much like the Sun "lucked out" to have a habitable planetary system. But without that luck, they'd be just another regular person slogging through life, much like the Sun would be just another star in space.

Class K stars. They correspond to your weird, loner classmates, like the goths or the debate team. In school, they're outcasts, and cluster in their own groups, but aren't socially weird enough to get bullied. As adults, they have lifestyles not much different from their more-popular class M counterparts.

Class M stars are coldest and dimmest. 76.5% of all stars are in this lass. Most are less than 1/2 of the Sun's mass, and have 10% of its luminosity. They have lifespans in trillions of years, and some outliers date from before the Big Bang. They correspond to your lowest common denominator: NT kids who amaze us with their "lack of intelligence". They first read simple books in kindergarten, only open non-fiction books for school papers, and avoid STEM college majors like the plague. As 20-somethings, they post endless updates on Facebook about the Kardashians' whereabouts. But as full-grown adults, they own big houses, work in upper management (where they abuse their class O thru A underlings), and a drive fresh-off-the-factory BMW.


So what do you think of the Star Theory? Do you think it's true, and if so, just how true? Post your thoughts.



Fnord
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03 Oct 2015, 12:11 pm

It lacks empirical data, and relies on subjective correlation of largely apocryphal observations with human behavioral tropes and personal assumptions.

You might be able to make a spiritual development book out if it - such as those found in the "Self-Help" sections of used book stores.

Good luck with that.



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03 Oct 2015, 1:04 pm

I don't know whether or not I agree with it but I think this was a very beautiful and semi-mystical analogy. You did a lot of work on that, I think it was very nice.



Fnord
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03 Oct 2015, 1:27 pm

I think that this thread belongs in PP&R.



Aspie1
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03 Oct 2015, 1:59 pm

Thank you. The Star Theory is another way of saying "the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long", but with astronomy garb, to make this spiritual expression more palatable for rational-minded aspies. It's also meant to dispel the myth that child prodigies grow into wildly successful adults. Think about it: the human brain power, driven by the number of synapses between brain neurons, is not limitless. (No relation to the movie of the same name.) It will run out sooner or later. The mental energy required to keep a child prodigy's mind active comes at a high cost, not unlike a high-APR credit card. And the aftermath can be very unpleasant. Consider the following comparisons.

Class O stars are famous because they're rare. But by burning hot and bright, they turn all their hydrogen into helium within just 10 million years, then end up degenerating into black holes. And that's IF they end their lives as massive supernovas, clouding all their surroundings with a glowing nebula. Most of them simply degenerate into barely-visible neutron stars, with their former selves blown away by interstellar winds.

Class M starts are very common. To the point that astronomers ignore many of them. They conserve their hydrogen supply, burning just above the nuclear fusion starting temperature. But they last for tens of trillions of years, and oftentimes much longer. Many existed for as long as the universe did. And they will keep going strong. The end will be slow and steady as well, dimming until they fade away into brown dwarfs.

Similarly, average NT kids don't do much to intrigue adults around them. They spend a lot of time investing their minds into pop culture, friendships, and acquiring social status among peers, activities considered mundane among adults. But as the same time, they accumulate mental energy. Only to have it come out roaring like a tiger when they become adults, causing them to surge ahead in life and career.

By contrast, child geniuses wow and amaze everyone but their peers. Adults ooh and ah when such a child talks about the main idea of The Iliad or recites the temperature of every star class in this thread. But time passes. Aging takes its toll. They become adults. Only to find out that they have little or no mental energy left, having exhausted it all at a young age. Next come poverty and drinking just to cope.

And PLEASE don't move it to PP&R. (Although I'm aware that I'm as powerless to stop a mod's decision to do so, as any star is powerless to stop its demise.) I don't want it to get drowned out by angry debates.



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03 Oct 2015, 2:10 pm

I think your descriptive is astute. And I know precisely what you mean. Someone reminded of an old book, A Wrinkle in Time, and I instantly thought of these select characters, e.g., Charles Wallace, after reading your post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time


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btbnnyr
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03 Oct 2015, 4:07 pm

This makes little sense to me.
It seems that my mental energy increases instead of decreases as time goes on, and I get more knowledge and understanding in my area.


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Fnord
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03 Oct 2015, 4:29 pm

btbnnyr wrote:
This makes little sense to me...

It's just another method of putting people into neat little categories by using natural phenomenae as behavioral analogues. However, it does not seem to use C, D, L, S, T, W, or Y stars, nor does it address any analogous behavior associated with black holes, Cepheid variables, or quai-stellar radio sources.

Another way to look at is as a form of astrological hokum - which is why I think that this thread belongs in PP&R, and not in GAD.



naturalplastic
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03 Oct 2015, 4:52 pm

Meh.

A complicated way of stating a simplistic idea.

All that you're saying is "the hotter you burn the sooner you burn out", and then you put us all on a single continuium of progressively hotter-but-slower burners, but complicate that simple notion by stuffing humanity into the same pigeonholes as astronomers use for stars. But humans come on a more complex sequence than do balls of hyrdogen in space, with more axis than that IMHO.

Sorry.



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04 Oct 2015, 5:25 pm

I dunno, there have got to be a lot of instances of people who were child prodigies who are social, or who did not burn out at a young age (Itzhak Perlman, for instance). There are also people who are bright in some areas and rather dim in others, or who fluctuate over time depending on their emotional state (I'm kind of like that. Maybe I could be a quasar).


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