Child Prodigies

[MerkW]

I started the exact same thread on a socionics forum. So thus I proceed. Here are some people who were child prodigies during their childhood. What do you think is the MBTI type of each? Also, do you think that there is any correlation whatsoever between MBTI type and child prodigies?

Norbert Wiener, mathematician

Terrence Tao, mathematician

Blaise Pascal, mathematician

Brian Greene, theoretical physicist, mental calculator

John von Neumann, mathematician (among other things)

Daniel Tammet, mental calculator, linguistic savant

H.P. Lovecraft, writer

Pablo Picasso, visual artist

Jeremy Bentham, philosopher, social reformer

John Stuart Mill, philosopher, social reformer

Bobby Fischer, grandmaster, chess prodigy

Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician

Ruth Lawrence, mathematician

William James Sidis, polymath, mathematician, scholar

Paul Erdos, mathematician

 

[The Grey Badger]

Erdos, at a guess, INTP.

 

[The Ü™]

Bobby Fisher: ENTp

H.P. Lovecraft: INTp

Daniel Tammet: ENTp or ISTp

Brian Greene: INTj

Blaise Pascal: ISFj

William James Sidis: ESTp

Ruth Lawrence: ESFj

Terrence Tao: ENTp

Best guesses...

I don't want to use MBTI types here because then they would all be stereotypical NTs.

And keep in mind, I'm not very good at Socionics, so take my types with a grain of salt.

 

[nemo]

John von Neumann strikes me as an ENTJ, from what little I've read of his biography.

Erdos -- INTP.

Dunno much about the others.

 

[MerkW]

John von Neumann strikes me as an ENTJ, from what little I've read of his biography.

Definitely.

@ Uber:
Ruth Lawrence as an ESFj? I doubt it. Also, I am pretty sure that Brian Greene is an Exxp type. Sidis is definitely not an ESTp. I could agree with the rest.

 

[The Ü™]

Definitely.

@ Uber:
Ruth Lawrence as an ESFj? I doubt it. Also, I am pretty sure that Brian Greene is an Exxp type. Sidis is definitely not an ESTp. I could agree with the rest.

I'm using Socionics Visual Identification (to the best of my ability). Ruth Lawrence appears to be an ESFj in Socionics, Greene an INTj.

 

[MerkW]

I'm using Socionics Visual Identification (to the best of my ability). Ruth Lawrence appears to be an ESFj in Socionics, Greene an INTj.

Aha. I thought you were socio-typing them by using model A blocks. In my opinion, V.I. is very dubious. I would not be surprised if there were a correlation between facial expressions and voice tone, yet a correlation between facial structure and personality sounds like rubbish to me.

 

[The Ü™]

I think Bobby Fischer was an MBTI INTJ, if that makes you feel better.

 

[MerkW]

With that said, I think Bobby Fischer was an MBTI INTJ.

Sounds rather reasonable. Definitely IxTx. Rather interesting character, he was.

 

[GZA]

Care to name a few more non-mathematician prodigies? I only say that because this is a cool idea but I don't find mathematicians interesting for the most part.

I'll take a stab at Picasso though, but I'll need to look at some of his works and read about him a bit more.

Cool idea!

 

[JustDave]

Sounds rather reasonable. Definitely IxTx. Rather interesting character, he was.

If we accept that the INTJ is the "mastermind" and "the strategist" then Bobby Fischer probably was an INTJ.

 

[JustDave]

Care to name a few more non-mathematician prodigies? I only say that because this is a cool idea but I don't find mathematicians interesting for the most part.

I'll take a stab at Picasso though, but I'll need to look at some of his works and read about him a bit more.

Cool idea!

Many websites type Picasso as an ESFP but I disagree. I think he was an ENFP because his work was to surreal to have been created by someone with a dominant Se. However, to me Ne makes more sense.

 

[MerkW]

If we accept that the INTJ is the "mastermind" and "the strategist" then Bobby Fischer probably was an INTJ.

True, but there is nothing particularly N nor J about him. I was thinking IxTJ as a first, ISTP second, and INTP last.

 

[JustDave]

True, but there is nothing particularly N nor J about him. I was thinking IxTJ as a first, ISTP second, and INTP last.

His rebellious personality is very ISTP, as didn't he renounce America and move to Iceland? However a sensor probably would not find something intangible like chess to be very interesting.

Given the fact that one could memorize many strategies (Si?) you could build a strong case that he was an ISTJ.

 

[MerkW]

His rebellious personality is very ISTP, as didn't he renounce America and move to Iceland? However a sensor probably would not find something intangible like chess to be very interesting.

Given the fact that one could memorize many strategies (Si?) you could build a strong case that he was an ISTJ.

He didn't really move to Iceland. Rather, he was kicked out of the US for refusing to pay taxes. He made many anti-American remarks, and very surprisingly, extremely antisemitic remarks (even though he was of Jewish decent).

How exactly is chess intangible, though?

 

[JustDave]

He didn't really move to Iceland. Rather, he was kicked out of the US for refusing to pay taxes. He made many anti-American remarks, and very surprisingly, extremely antisemitic remarks (even though he was of Jewish decent).

How exactly is chess intangible, though?

Perhaps intangible is the wrong word. Bear with me on this, firstly it's a game. As such it has little use beyond itself. You can't do anything with it. Playing chess will neither cure AIDs nor find the origin of the universe. It's impractical. Hmm ... I cannot offer an adequate explanation of intangible.

To be honest I just can't imagine an artisan sitting around playing a complex board game.

 

[MerkW]

Ah, I see. Well, SPs aren't always into "usefulness." Take ESFPs, for instance. They often prefer to spend their time partying and living a hedonistic lifestyle. This is has no pragmatic result whatsoever. The same may be applied to ISFPs and ISTPs, if you catch what I am trying to say. INTJs, on the other hand are very much into pragmatic application. I honestly don't think that it is all about S vs. N.

 

[JustDave]

Ah, I see. Well, SPs aren't always into "usefulness." Take ESFPs, for instance. They often prefer to spend their time partying and living a hedonistic lifestyle. This is has no pragmatic result whatsoever. The same may be applied to ISFPs and ISTPs, if you catch what I am trying to say. INTJs, on the other hand are very much into pragmatic application. I honestly don't think that it is all about S vs. N.

How the hell did I miss that? Good point. Perhaps he was an ISTP then as chess, like many things pursued by artisans is fun.

 

[Jae Rae]

Chess is a game which relies heavily on strategy, at which the Rationals excel. I vote INTJ.

Jae Rae

 

[MerkW]

Chess is a game which relies heavily on strategy, at which the Rationals excel. I vote INTJ.

Jae Rae

True, but chess is also a game which heavily relies upon tactics, which is would more accurately be described as the realm of STPs.