The Tragedy of a Math Guy Who Spoke 25 Languages and Was Smart as Hell

William James Sidis just wanted to be left alone

William James Sidis photographed at his Harvard graduation in 1914 | Image from Wikipedia, altered by the author

We think three things in life can make us successful:

• money,
• beauty,
• and brains.

But what if they are a curse?

William Sidis was a child prodigy. Even as a boy, he was an extraordinary mathematician, a polyglot, and a gifted writer. Many accomplished people praised his intelligence such as mathematician Wiener, physicist Comstock, and philosopher James.

He supposedly spoke 25 languages and dialects and had an intelligence quotient between 250 and 300. In comparison, average people have an IQ between 80 and 120. Einstein had 160.

But Sidis neither achieved much nor had a fulfilling life. He was a sensation instead.

William Sidis was his parents’ project

Sidis was born in New York in 1898 to a family of Jewish immigrants from today’s Ukraine. Before his birth, his parents got away from political and anti-Semitic abuse in Russia (to which Ukraine belonged at the time) and started a new life in the USA.