The Prometheus Society Articles The Outsiders

"His name was William James Sidis, and his IQ was estimated at between
250 and 300 [8, p. 283]. At eighteen months he could read The
New York Times, at two he taught himself Latin, at three he learned
Greek. By the time he was an adult he could speak more than forty
languages and dialects. He gained entrance to Harvard at eleven,
and gave a lecture on four-dimensional bodies to the Harvard Mathematical
Club his first year. He graduated cum laude at sixteen, and became
the youngest professor in history. He deduced the possibility
of black holes more than twenty years before Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
published An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure.....Of all the prodigies for which there are records, his was probably the most powerful intellect of all. And yet it all came to nothing. He soon gave up his position as a professor, and for the rest of his life wandered from one menial job to another. His experiences as a child prodigy had proven so painful that he decided for the rest of his life to shun public exposure at all costs."