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Is it possible to raise a kid who explores things way beyond the assigned school curriculum and in result might know much more than all the other kids around without feeling superior about it?

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Made in Cosmos

@made_in_cosmos

· May 20

Replying to @halvorz

serious question: how do I let my daughter follow her wildest curiosities without making her believe that she's special?

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

May 20

i don't think it'll be particularly helpful to try to get her to stop feeling superior or special or w/e. if you're giving her opportunities other kids don't have she's gonna notice the difference eventually. let her notice it and feel however she's gonna feel about it

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

May 20

i was raised with a lot of memes that caused me to heavily downplay my own intelligence most of the time b/c i didn't want other people to feel bad and it may have improved my social life for awhile but it also made me annoyingly tangled up about my intelligence

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

Replying to

@QiaochuYuan

and

@made_in_cosmos

like in many ways i felt like i wasn't allowed to notice or care about or be proud of my intelligence and that was actually a subtle annoying barrier to a lot of things and had weird effects on my self-image. not a single person sat me down and was straight with me about this

7:55 PM · May 20, 2022Twitter Web App

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QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

Replying to

and

i wish someone had just told me something like "yeah, you can do things other people can't do, that's worth knowing about yourself, now ask yourself what you're going to do with this gift and how you want to use it"

Made in Cosmos

@made_in_cosmos

May 20

Thanks, this looks like a helpful frame

Replying to

lol for me it was exactly the opposite, I had to prove that I was super intelligent and winning everything at every step, and then when I went to college and realized I’m nowhere near the top half of my class my whole world fell apart

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

May 20

welp

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Tommy Siegel

@TommySiegel

· Sep 17, 2019

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