Sunday, October 14, 2012

Is Chris Langan successful?


Recently in class we read about Chris Langan and saw him appear in the game show 1 vs. 100. Chris Langan is said to be "the smartest man in America" and he has an IQ of 195. There's no doubting that Chris Langan is smart but he hasn't been able to use his intelligence to become successful.  My personal definition of success is someone who makes an impact on the world and others. In the book the Outliers (where we first heard of Chris Langan) we are learning how different factors affect our success. If success was simply being happy and content with your life, Gladwell would've wrote things like "do what you love and love what you do." But being happy isn't success. I wouldn't say I'm successful because I'm happy when there are people out there earning millions of dollars and making a difference in the world. Those people that change lives are what I call successful. Chris Langan is currently married, raising his farm animals and is happy, but I wouldn't call him successful because he's happy. He had the ability and responsibility of sharing his ideas with the world. But, since Chris didn't go to college, people don't take his ideas seriously. There are plenty of people who haven't gone to college and don't have very good jobs and are considered unsuccessful, but Chris Langan is one of those people and he is considered (by some) successful because he's happy. Why should Chris Langan be called more successful than those people just because he has a higher IQ? I do believe people should be happy with their lives but when it comes down to the point, Chris Langan is no more successful than the average man.

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