Who is William James Sidis? The smartest person to ever step foot on Earth

Who is William James Sidis? The smartest person to ever step foot on Earth

Albert Einstein's IQ is estimated at 160, Isaac Newton's IQ is 190, and Mark Zuckerberg's IQ is 152. These men are known to be the smartest and most intelligent people on earth. But a person with an IQ between 250 and 300 has lived!

  William James Sidis was the smartest man to ever walk the earth, a child prodigy, and an exceptional mathematician. He was also a professor of many languages and dialects, and a talented writer. But it is unfortunate that the vast majority of people have not heard of it

He was fluent in eight languages by the age of eight
William was born in New York City in 1898. His father, Boris, a distinguished psychologist, held four degrees from Harvard University, and his mother was a doctor. Given the distinction and intelligence of his parents, it was expected that William James would also become intelligent, but his intelligence was extraordinary, elevating him to the ranks of geniuses.

Boris Sidis, William's father.
William was able to read The New York Times at only one and a half years old. By the time he was eight, he had taught himself Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian. In addition to all these languages, this genius invented a new language himself and called it a language
Vendergood.

William's father was aware of his superior intelligence, so he tried to enroll him in Harvard University, which rejected his application because William was not yet nine years old at the time. But after two years, the university accepted him and William became the youngest person at Harvard University in 1909. At the height of his genius in mathematics in 1910, he began teaching his professors instead of learning from them, and at that time he earned the title of “the child prodigy.” William obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of sixteen.
He decided to live in isolation

Fame can be tiring, especially if one has it at a young age. William told the press shortly after his graduation that he wished to live a perfect life, which in his sense was to live away from everyone. He added that he would never marry and that he was not attracted to women at all.

Besides unwanted fame, his decision was influenced by the pressure he faced since birth. America at that time believed in turning children into prodigies by giving them the right education. William's father, being a great psychologist, was excited about the brightness of his son's star. Therefore, he began applying psychological methods in raising him and putting pressure on him. Even though William enjoyed learning as a child, his opinion changed as he grew older and he blamed his father, to the point that he refused to attend his father Boris' funeral in 1923.

He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison
As is the case with most geniuses, in order to keep a low profile, William worked in low-paid office jobs. However, people were still able to recognize him, so he had no choice but to change his profession again. In 1924, journalists discovered that he was working for $23 a week, and his name returned to the headlines. But this time, they mocked his intelligence and said that he was no longer able to do what he was able to do when he was young. This was not true at all, as William wrote many valuable books under pseudonyms.

William was a prominent socialist who opposed World War I. He was arrested in 1919 at a non-peaceful demonstration in Boston, and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. But his parents found a way to get him out of prison, locking him up in an asylum for two years instead.

William spent his life broken-hearted and completely alone. Because he was a family member, William worked as a factory worker and did many simple jobs to make ends meet. The person who could have changed the world died sadly at the age of forty-six as a nobody, after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1944. Interestingly, his father had died in the same way.

What do you think of William's story? Did you know that a person with an IQ between 250 and 300 has ever been born? We are waiting for you to stop by and interact with us in the comments section below!

Sources Links :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/william-james-sidis-119565.php
https://www.amazon.com/Prodigy-Biography-William-Americas-Greatest/dp/0525244042