210 IQ is not enough
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.” -- @leahtriss 2019/10/26
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.
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