All right, welcome back to the deep dive. You guys know the drill, right? You send us something that piques your interest. Could be an article, a research paper, a crazy Reddit thread, you name it. And we full we dive in. We take all that info and pull out the most fascinating, the juiciest bits. No need to spend hours sifting through it all. We do that for you. Yeah. Think of it like uh we're your intellectual shortcut, right? Helping you get a handle on a topic without drowning in information overload. We're going to point out the highlights, the stuff that really matters, and maybe even unearth some surprising little nuggets along the way. And today, we're diving head first into well, a life. A pretty unique one, too. William James Cedus, that's our subject. A listener sent us his Wikipedia page. Pretty extensive, I got to say. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot to unpack. Yeah. William James Cidus, born April 1st, 1898, died July 17th, 1944. American child prodigy. I mean, this guy was famous from a very young age for his just insane abilities in math and languages. And child prodigy almost doesn't do him justice. I mean, we're talking about someone who is a straightup phenomenon. But the thing is, it's not just that early brilliance. It's what happened later in his life. Like, how did he handle it all? You, our dear listener, wanted to understand Cedus and understand him quickly, right? Well, I think this deep dive into that Wikipedia article is going to unearth some well some unexpected turns, some real surprises. So today, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to try and understand, try to get to the heart of this remarkable and frankly at times pretty puzzling life. Okay, let's do it. Let's start, I guess, at the beginning, early life. You know, how was he raised? It's pretty clear from the get-go his parents played a big role in shaping him. Huge role. Absolutely. He was born in Boston. His parents, Boris and Sarasetas, Jewish immigrants. They came from the Russian Empire, what's now Ukraine. His father, a psychiatrist, a polyglot actually, fled political persecution, you know, anti-semitism. His mother, a physician, escaped the pilgrims, ended up graduating from Boston University School of Medicine. Talk about a high achieving intellectual family background. Yeah, talk about pressure. And get this, they named him after, wait for it, William James, the American philosopher, the big guy. He was his godfather. Actually, Boris, his dad, was a big believer in well, nurturing a child's intellectual gifts. Let's say nurturing is one word for it. Some might say they went a little overboard. I mean, the Wikipedia entry definitely highlights their uh ambition, but it also points out that their methods, well, let's just say they weren't exactly universally praised, neither back then nor. Yeah, I can see why. The article says that CDIs could read the New York Times at 18 months old. 18 months. I mean, what does that even tell us about human potential, right? And what kind of pressure does that put on a kid? You know, it's mind-blowing, honestly. Wait, it gets crazier. By 8 years old, he'd supposedly taught himself eight languages. Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, Armenian, eight. And then on top of that, he invented his own language. Vendergood. Can you even imagine what does that say about how his brain was wired? You know, vendergood. It's like uh it's like his brain was a supercomputer running linguistic algorithms or something. It kind of foreshadows, you know, how his life would unfold, how different it would be. And it wasn't just memorizing words. It suggests like a deep intuitive grasp of the structure of language itself. And then of course there's Harvard. Even getting in there was a big deal. Oh yeah, a huge deal. They actually rejected him at first when he was nine, which you know kind of makes sense. Too young, right? But in 1909 at 11 years old, he becomes the youngest person ever to enroll at Harvard. I can't even picture an 11-year-old in that environment. I mean, surrounded by all those college students. It's wild. And he didn't just attend, he thrived. Absolutely. In early 1910, his grasp of higher mathematics was so advanced that he lectured the Harvard mathematical club on four-dimensional bodies. I mean, that's graduate level stuff, right? To understand that at 11 years old, it just and the article even has quotes from people who were there. Norbert Weiner, you know, the cybernetics pioneer, he was a Harvard student then. And he said Cedus' lecture was worthy of a first or second year graduate student of any age. Coming from a guy like Weiner, that's high praise. Oh yeah. Seriously. And then there's this MIT physics professor Daniel F. Comtock. He compared Cides to Carl Friedrich Gaus like one of the greatest mathematicians ever. Said Cedus would become a leading light in astronomical mathematics. You know, develop whole new theories. The expectations on this kid must have been enormous. Astronomical is right. So by 1910 he's taking a full course load. And in 1914 at 16 he graduates with the Bachelor of Arts cumlaude. Interesting thing his grades were a mix of A's, B's, and C's. Maybe that tells us his interests were pretty broad. You know, not just laser focused on one thing. What do you think? That's a really good point. It's like even with his incredible abilities, he wasn't obsessed with getting perfect grades in every single subject. Maybe he was already starting to think outside the box, you know, beyond just the traditional measures of success. And right after graduating, it seems like Cedus already had a vision for the kind of life he wanted. Yeah. He basically told reporters that he wanted the perfect life, which for him meant a life of solitude. He even said he was going to stay celibate and never marry. Said women didn't appeal to him at that point. Although the article does mention that he later developed feelings for a woman named Martha Foley. Interesting, right? Like even with these strong early views, life throws you curveballs. Things change. Oh, totally. It shows how complex people are. Even someone as intellectually gifted as Cedus. His ideas about life, relationships, they were evolving. And you have to imagine all that public attention he got early on probably contributed to his craving for a quiet life. How do you think that level of fame affects a young person, you know, in the long run? Yeah, that kind of spotlight, that's got to be intense, especially with the added layer of well, some negative experiences at Harvard. Right. Right. So, after being threatened by a group of Harvard students, his parents stepped in again. They got him a job as a math teaching assistant at Rice University, Houston, Texas. This was December 1915. He was 17, graduate fellow working on his doctorate. So, from youngest student to well, potentially teaching students older than him. Talk about a role reversal. I know, right? He taught Uklitian geometry, even wrote a textbook and greet for it in non uklitian geometry, freshman math. But it didn't last long. Less than a year, the article says he got frustrated with the department, the teaching, the way the older students treated him. He later told a friend, I never knew why they gave me the job in the first place. I'm not much of a teacher. I didn't leave. I was asked to go. Seems like there's a difference between being brilliant at math and being able to teach it, you know? Yeah. Totally different skill sets. And then he made a pretty big change, huge change. He drops out of the math program and in September 1916 enrolls in Harvard Law School. But again, not a forever thing. He withdrew in 1919 during his final year. It makes you wonder what was he really looking for, you know? Absolutely. I mean, he had this amazing mind, but finding a field, a path that truly fit, it seemed to be a struggle. And then 1919, his life takes another sharp turn back into the public eye. But this time it's about politics. Yeah. Right after law school, he gets arrested for being in a socialist Mayday parade in Boston that turned violent. The fact that it made headlines shows you like he was still a big name, the Harvard prodigy, still in the public consciousness. For sure. He ended up getting sentenced to 18 months in prison under the Sedition Act of 1918. And at his trial, he made some pretty strong, maybe even surprising statements. He said he was a conscientious objector against World War I, that he was a socialist, and that he didn't believe in God, at least not the way the big boss of the Christians was usually portrayed. These were not exactly popular views back then. Definitely added another layer to his public image. Yeah, those statements paint a picture of someone with very independent, very evolving political and philosophical beliefs. The article mentions that he later developed a libertarian philosophy focused on individual rights and what he called American social continuity. It's fascinating how his ideas seem to shift and change over time. It really is. His father worried about him ending up in prison intervened. Instead of jail time, his parents basically put him in a sanatorium. First in New Hampshire for a year, then another year in California, trying to reform him. Apparently, there was even the threat of him being committed to an insane asylum if he didn't comply. That must have been a really tough time for him. Isolated, controlled, especially for someone like Cidius who clearly valued his independence. After 1921, when he came back to the East Coast, it seems like he made a very conscious decision to disappear from public life. The opposite of his early years. Night and day really. He took menial jobs like operating adding machines. Became estranged from his parents. took him years to feel safe enough to return to Massachusetts. Still worried about legal issues from his arrest. What do you think was behind this withdrawal? Just wanting peace or something deeper? Probably a mix of things. Maybe the pressure of fame, the feeling that his interests didn't match up with what society expected from him. It all pushed him to find fulfillment in other ways. The article talks about his private world, you know, his own little universe. Yeah. He got really into collecting street car transfers, self-published his own writings, taught his own version of American history to small groups of friends. It's like he was deeply engaged in his own intellectual pursuits, but in a very solitary way. Interestingly, despite his brilliance, he didn't do that well on a civil service exam in New York in 1933, placed 254th. And the article mentions that in a private letter, he said this result was not so encouraging. Makes you think, right? It challenges that image of him as this universal genius who could do anything. Maybe his talents were more specific, more focused in certain areas. Makes sense. In 1935, he wrote a manuscript unpublished under the name John W. Shadic was called The Tribes in the States. Explored Native American contributions to American democracy. Yeah, you see his intellectual curiosity branching out here. That's so cool. And the article says that a lot of his insights came from studying wampom belts. He saw them as a form of writing, you know, colored beads, conveying complex ideas, recording treaties. He emphasized how Native American federations influenced the founding fathers. What do you think drew him to that specifically? Maybe he was drawn to marginalized perspectives or alternative ways of thinking about history. It shows his mind was always searching, always exploring new territory, and his writings, as we've seen, cover a pretty wide range. Cosmology, rail, transportation, all sorts of stuff. Can't forget Vendergood that language he created when he was what seven years old. Unbelievable, right? The article says it was mostly based on Latin and Greek, but it took bits from German, French, other romance languages, too. Had its own base 12 number system, eight different moods for verbs. There are examples given like the Bowman obscures translates to the toxicities obscure. It's intricate like a whole other world of language. And then there's his book, The Animate and the Inanimate, published in 1925 under his own name. This seems like a key to understanding the scope of his intellectual journey. Totally agree. He tackled big questions in this book. The origin of life, the nature of the universe, even speculated about the second law of thermodynamics being reversible under certain conditions. He proposed this idea of an infinite universe with regions of negative tendencies where like the laws of physics might operate in reverse. Pretty mind-bending stuff. He also explored the idea that life has always existed, that it just evolves. even mentioned a theory about life being based on cyanogen. Pointed out the weird fact that almonds have cyanogen in them. Even entertained the idea that stars might be alive with their own cycles of light and darkness. This was pretty out there for the time. Why do you think these huge philosophical questions grabbed his attention so much? Maybe it was that early exposure to so much knowledge combined with his ability for abstract thought. He could grapple with these questions in a way most people couldn't. And as the article points out, his book was kind of ignored when it came out. It wasn't until 1979 that it was rediscovered and started getting some attention. Buckminister Fuller, who'd been a classmate of Cedus at Harvard, was super excited about it. Cedus seemed to have predicted black holes that his cosmological ideas aligned with Fuller's own work in synergetics. Wow, that's a crazy connection to make so many years later. Maybe Cedus was just way ahead of his time in some ways. And he also wrote notes on the collection of transfers under the pseudonym Frank Falupa. all about how to get more people using public transportation. Practical stuff, too. Yeah. And in 1930, he got a patent for a rotary perpetual calendar that took leap years into account. Shows his inventive side. His contributions, even during his more private years, were sign. I mean, he was even invited to the first genius meeting in 1926. But, you know, his desire for privacy never went away. And that brings us to a pretty unfortunate chapter involving the New Yorker magazine. Right. In 1937, James Thurber, writing under a different name, published a profile of Cedus called Where Are They Now? It painted him as this lonely, unsuccessful guy. Cedus was really hurt by it. Sued the magazine for liel and invasion of privacy. Yeah, it was a long legal battle. He lost the privacy part. The court said, "Yeah, it caused him distress, but the press has a right to report on public figures, even former ones. But he did settle the liel part for $3,000. It shows how tough it is to be in the spotlight then try to step away from it all. Absolutely. People are fascinated by those who achieve incredible things even when they try to fade into the background. Yeah. Sadly, he died pretty young. Cerebral hemorrhage in 1944 at just 46. So young, especially considering his potential, which brings us to his legacy and those famous IQ claims, right? His sister Helena said his IQ was between 250 and 300 based on a psychologist's assessment a few years before he died. This was reported in a book published in 1946. But these numbers, well, we have to be careful with them. They haven't been verified and his family was known for, you know, making big claims. The article even points out that Helina might have misunderstood his low ranking on that civil service exam. Thought it meant low IQ when it probably just reflected his position on the list of people who passed. And then there were those wild claims like him knowing every language in the world or learning a language in a day. No evidence for that. So yeah, he was super intelligent, but the exact IQ, we just don't know for sure. What's clear is that his life, his story continues to capture people's imaginations. He's mentioned in books like Robert M. Persig's Leela, an inquiry into morals and Norbert Weiner's autobiography, Ex- Prodigy, even inspired fictional characters. And his story is still relevant to how we think about education, especially for gifted kids. His upbringing has been criticized. you know, his father pushing intellectual development so hard, maybe at the expense of his social and emotional well-being, and his struggles in academia have fueled debates about whether it's good to accelerate gifted kids through school. It raises questions about what a well-rounded education should be, how important social emotional development is alongside the intellectual stuff. Interestingly, the article ends by mentioning research suggesting that challenging curriculums can actually help gifted kids with those social and emotional challenges. It seems like we're still learning how to best support these kids, you know, for sure. So, to sum it up, William James Sigus, an exceptional mind, achieved incredible things at a very young age, but he ultimately chose a life away from the spotlight, pursuing his intellectual passions in his own way. His story really makes you think, huh, about what genius really is, about how fame can be a burden, and ultimately about how to find that balance, that personal balance between intellectual growth and just, you know, living a good life. totally and what I find so interesting is that his ideas in the animate and the inanimate those unconventional ideas were later recognized by someone like Buckminister Fuller makes you wonder how many other brilliant minds are out there thinking outside the box whose ideas haven't been heard great question what does it really mean to have a successful life a filled life was Cedus' choice to live privately a retreat or was it him finding his own path defining his own meaning away from all the expectations ations. It's definitely something to ponder. It is. And that's where you come in, dear listeners. What are you curious about? What's piqued your interest? Send us your suggestions and we'll dive into them in a future episode. Absolutely. Keep those suggestions coming. Until next time, keep exploring, keep questioning, and as always, stay curious.