Conversation

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?

Quote Tweet

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

May 20

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

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

@QiaochuYuan

Replying to

@QiaochuYuan

and

@made_in_cosmos

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"

7:55 PM · May 20, 2022Twitter Web App

Replying to

Thanks, this looks like a helpful frame