<p>Again, most eminent people were not child prodigies. However, the <em>percentage</em> of child prodigies becoming eminent is larger than the <em>percentage</em> of the general population who becomes eminent or even of the <em>college educated</em> population (and my <em>guess</em> would be even for the top schools like Harvard, MIT, Yale, etc. but for that, I am not as sure). And this is for academia and technology, not just sports and such. Stephen Wolfram is an eminent technologist and he graduated from Caltech with a doctorate at age 20 and was considered a child prodigy. Charles Fefferman ([Charles</a> Fefferman](<a href=“Math @ Bellevue College”>Math @ Bellevue College)) started college at age 12, graduated with high honors from the University of Maryland at age 17, and at 20 he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton. At 22 the newly bearded “Charlie” became a full professor at the University of Chicago (the youngest full professor in America even to this day, I believe). By the time he was 24, he completed the work that earned him a Fields Medal (awarded every 4 years to a mathematician under 40) and a host of other honors. Erik Demaine was home-schooled by his father from age 7 to 12, when he entered Dalhousie University in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He earned his bachelor’s degree two years later in 1995 at age 14, then went to the University of Waterloo for his master’s degree in math (1996) at age 15 and earned the Ph.D. (2001) at age 20. He joined the MIT faculty that same year (age 20), reportedly the youngest professor in the history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2003, he has was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.</p>
<p>Nobel prize winners aren’t mostly child prodigies, but again, the <em>percentage</em> of child prodigies who go on to win one is far higher than the <em>percentage</em> of non-child prodigies who win one. And truly, how is this even surprising to some people as clearly the child prodigies have greater than average talent and so one should expect they would have greater than average career success?</p>