Young talents: new ideas on the way to a better future

“I am young, it is true; but to well-born souls, value does not wait for the number of years”

(II, 2, 405-406) Le Cid, Corneille

Youth success fascinates us

The talent is the one who knows how to handle his art marvelously, the genius is the one who radically and creatively transforms his discipline, or even creates it specifically to his measure.

The image of a youthful Mozart capable of producing incredible melodies, but above all, of composing his first minuets at the age of 6 is the archetype of precocious genius. History is full of them. Thus, Evariste Galois, at the age of 20, theorizes the conditions for an equation to be solvable by radicals, that is to say so that we can find its solutions using only the four basic operations. Blaise Pascal mastered the foundations of Euclid’s geometry at the age of twelve, at the age of 19, Gauss wrote the regular polygons that can be constructed using a ruler and compass only. Rimbaud was 17 when he wrote “Le Bateau Ivre”. Thomas Edison is an autodidact who at the age of 10 already had a chemistry laboratory in the basement of his parents’ house. Then we know his sparkling passion for electricity.

These young people who defy the laws of learning going so fast fascinate us. Young talents even plead for the existence of reincarnation because their gift seems so sudden, even if behind each precociousness hides a lot of passion, family support, favorable environment, training, work and multiple trials before reaching in a flash of genius. These young talents are history, but others are rising to the challenges of a world in transition that speaks to us. They imagine technological solutions, they are creative or rise up in our consciences to break the rules.

Young scientific talents, proven geniuses

The Internet giants try to detect scientific talents and geniuses through competitions. Thus Intel identifies each year exceptional performances of scientific geniuses.

Scientific precocity applies to all disciplines and does not bother with the weight of protocols or scientific beliefs in force. It is probably this lack of prevention that allows them to ignore the barriers that the scientific community erects. In computer science, Nick d’Aloisio recently created Summly, an application capable of summarizing news articles. His code pleased Yahoo! who bought it for $30 million.

In the field of space research, Neil Ibata identified the organization of dwarf galaxies around the constellation Andromeda. He was then a trainee at the Strasbourg Observatory. This discovery is major for the world of astronomy; Arjun Nair, 16-year-old high school student, has for his part made it possible to improve a therapy against cancer thanks to the simple use of an antibiotic.

When to Eesha Khare18, invented a system that charges a phone battery in less than 30 minutes, a real user benefit for billions of mobile users around the world.

Young creative talents

Among the young creative talents there are many authors, singers and artists. Not all will become outsized; geniuses revolutionizing their discipline is rarer. There is probably Martin who works wood and metal 7 days a week in pursuit of an ideal of beauty and fairness in the objects he manufactures, without electricity, in memory and in honor of the community of American artisans. Marie-Ange Nguci is a pianist and 20-year-old interprets difficult works with virtuosity. His musical genius is as amazing as his simplicity, his humility almost bordering on shyness.

It would also be possible to cite many authors, poets or creators from cities, countryside or large cities. Wherever one looks, one sees young talents who are active and in the process of hatching; networks are their stage.

Committed young talents

It is possible to be young and committed. Probably the young talents who are changing the world are in line with the thinking of eco-activist Greta Thunberg who says:

” So we can’t save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules need to be changed. Everything must change and it must start today.”.

These young talents do what they feel is right, which is why the established rules do not concern them. They are guided by superior instincts where the common good comes first. They rarely know each other but each in their own way militates in the same direction of a search for a peaceful, fulfilled life that makes room for everyone. They remind us of the evidence of generosity sometimes at the risk of their lives.

The young people who openly confront the vindictiveness of the Taliban like Malala Yousafzai, Nobel prize. Those who fight for independence and freedom of thought in their city like Joshua Wong in Hong Kong. The one who like Emma Gonzales stands against the American gun lobby. Those who fight for the rights of girls in Memory Banda Where Muzoon Almellehan. More and more of those who fight for biodiversity by planting millions of trees like Felix Finkbeiner and Victor Noel . Ahed Tamimi and Karolina Farska who fight for peace and against corruption.

Old masters and young talents

The examples proposed were in three limited but key areas of societal transition, there are of course talents in many other areas and practices such as sport, politics or the various human sciences and we must also pay tribute to them. Not everyone will become geniuses. But, that the most mature readers are reassured creativity also comes to the old masters not only to the young geniuses, because there are cycles of creativity and sometimes age is good. The path of experience is even sometimes favored for certain practices such as education where acquiring experience remains an interesting option.

If the cases cited are insufficient, Thélot’s book (2017) traces the origin of 350 geniuses over a period of 450 years. There is something here to learn how singularities manage to flourish.

According to Thélot’s conclusions:

“Half of the geniuses come from a superior background, a quarter from a popular family.
The genius is urban, very rarely peasant.
Artists and inventors are frequently of popular origin, intellectuals sometimes, action geniuses never.
It happens that genius “makes itself” all by itself. And four times out of five, he asserts himself in a new domain in relation to the family heritage. »

Sources

Huffingtonpost High School Girl Invents Revolutionary Charger https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/life/article/une-lyceenne-invente-un-charger-revolutionnaire-et-alors_19842.html

Lorient The day Arjun Nair a 16-year-old Canadian in search of better cancer therapy https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/809356/arjun-nair-un-canadien-de-16-ans-en-queste-dune-best-therapy-against-cancer.html

Answer to everything. Unusual. Neil Ibata little genius of astronomy. https://reponseatout.com/insolite-neil-ibata-15-ans-petit-genie-de-lastronomie/

Madame Figaro Young people and geniuses, these twenty-somethings who are shaping the world of tomorrow. https://madame.lefigaro.fr/societe/jeunes-et-genies-ces-vingtenaires-qui-faconnent-le-monde-de-demain-121020-182994

The influx. Little geniuses. The value does not wait for the number of years https://www.linflux.com/sciences/les-petits-genies-la-valeur-nattend-pas-le-nombre-des-annees/

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=148687447230553&id=356609184482177&_rdr

Early Geniuses. Work on your scales like Mozart https://photo.caminteresse.fr/les-genies-precoces-33986#9-travailler-ses-gammes-comme-mozart-586850

Old masters and young geniuses – Nathalie Heinich – https://journals.openedition.org/temporalites/1711

Thot course. Do you have to be old to innovate in pedagogy?

Thélot, C. (2017). The origin of geniuses. Media Broadcast.

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