 At one point in time he was the smartest child in all of China, but now he's grown up, he refuses to work, and he's still living off his parents. What's going on here? Yeah, at one point we thought you were a child prodigy and now you're an adult oddity. We're talking about Zhang Xingyang, Andrew, he's 28 years old now, but this guy was deemed a Chinese prodigy at the age of 2.5 because he could read 2,000 Chinese characters. That's a lot of characters. And then he went to college at 10, Andrew, when he'd get his PhD at 16, or he became a PhD student. But then when he was 16, Andrew, he started to show some cracks. It took him about eight years to get his doctorates and now he's 28, he doesn't want to work, he wants to live off his parents, and he's given a bunch of interviews about it. It's going viral all around Asia right now. Yeah, I guess we're going to go through the comment section. We're going to be breaking down this issue. Should you care if your kid is a child prodigy and what else matters in life? Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the hot pop boys. But I can tell you what's also a prodigy that's very young. Isma la sauce. I'm just kidding. It's very delicious, but a lot of people are trying it right now. They're getting theirs in the mail and get, order yours and get it in time for the holidays. Andrew, what happened to Zhang Xingyang, man? Let's take a look at him when he's a child here. He's smiling. He like, he looks normal. He's a cute kid. And then he was such a cute kid. Yo, I'm not going to lie. First of all, I'm not saying that this is true, Andrew, but how come it looks like all the math that he studied, it looks like he was doing math instead of physically. They don't have math over there, but I'm just saying what was what's going on? Yeah, yeah, it wasn't. It clearly wasn't substances because that would never get passed in China. But I think he looks quite uncute compared to his kid pictures. I think he grew up diet, probably spending time in front of the computer, probably long hours, a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. Think about it. You're a child prodigy. You got a lot of pressure on you. He has not lived a normal life. So unfortunately, yeah, I mean, he probably should have got braces along the way. But anyways, guys, regardless of his physical features, right? We can tell you that as a kid, he looked a lot more regular. But anyways, I guess what's your initial reaction, David? I mean, I think it's 2023. The idea of child prodigies or even child sports prodigies petering out and not achieving their potential. Andrew, this is well documented. It happens all the time with athletics and in academics. But then it's interesting because some people almost go too far the other way where they're like, yeah, everybody who's a child prodigy fails because they feel so entitled where I'm like, I don't know, guys. Elon Musk was also a child prodigy. Yeah. I mean, so to me, child prodigies, Andrew, they're almost like rocket ships. They got this rocket ship upward explosion power that very few people have. But the rocket ships, they either explode or do they go to the moon? Yeah, no. And there was this one interview I was watching of a Chinese professor that was talking about him. And he said, you know, he has a strong ability to learn independently, but a poor ability to live independently. And I think that living and learning, especially learning in an academic sense, is very different than living on your own. You know, we're talking about real life practicality. There's a lot of people out there who can live a happier life than him, who probably can't number crunch, even one tenth as good as him. You know what I mean? I think that that's a common thing. Like everybody knows that Albert Einstein, who was incredibly effective, he was a little bit weird in his IRL life too. But at what point do you become so have such a lack of ability to operate in IRL, it almost starts to affect impact your ability to create academically. Yeah. I mean, and also, you know, at the end of the day, and this is actually a hopeful statement for him. So right now, he refuses to work a regular job. He's kind of laying flat, as they would say. Yes, they would say in China. And then he's living off his parents and he knows he can live off his parents for a long time. But I think the key is if he's still motivated and passionate about some things, he still has time to make it worth it. You know what I mean? Like if he and I'm not saying he is, but what if he does invent something in the next five years, and he's living off his parents, but that invention is a big deal, then that's still worth it. We don't know yet. He hasn't fully been spoken for. I know a bunch of 26-year-olds, 28-year-olds who kind of live off their parents in different ways, you know what I mean? So it's like You're talking about creative directors in New York? No, people who are getting subsidized by their parents and parents have some savings, whatever, if they're going to get a house after they're, you know, inherited from their parents. Whatever it is, I'm just saying, I guess he looks hopeless now. But as long as he is motivated to do something, he still has potential to make something happen. He still got the big ass brain. Yeah, I mean, his head is his dome is his heads just kept growing when he got older. That's crazy. You filled it up with a lot of knowledge or some fluid or something. I would say that I'd be interested and know what his regiment was. Like was he put on actual IRL projects or all theoretical things. Because if you look at Elon, when I'm talking about Elon was a prodigy, he was making his own games at like eight or nine years old. That's a real life thing. It wasn't like he was just crushing books. Right, right, right. How much do we want to acknowledge here that his looks may have been a factor? I don't know. You know what I mean? Like I think that that's something that a lot of people, it's un-PC to talk about. But sometimes the way somebody looks, it can affect their interactions and then their interactions affect their motivations. That's what I think. I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. I think he's so, in my opinion, he's so smart. He's in that like super geek lane where like you're talking about like I don't think it looks like Noel Horaro. Yeah, I don't think there's a lot of super smart people. I mean, like I don't think like he's around like Hollywood, beautiful, Chinese superstars all the time. So I feel like he's not doing the model walk on Douyin. Yeah, I don't know if it was about that. But clearly, you know, he probably just wants to be happy and maybe he wasn't happy his whole life studying. Right. I think my last quick thought is that the comments that you're going to see from the Western commenters and the Eastern commenters, because I pulled some Eastern Asian comment sites are very different, not super different, but like have different details because the knowledge base is different. Anyway, let's just get into the comment section. Somebody said, I always assumed that 85% of prodigies would turn out this way because it's impossible to pack enough maturity in so little time. And a lot of people had a ton of comments about like, I thought all little child geniuses fail. Do you think the perception of child geniuses is different from the East and the West? Because it seems like when you say I got a child genius in the West, the immediate response from an average person is like, hey, it might be weird and it might explode on you. Whereas in the East, there's like, oh yeah, I'm so hopeful for the next Einstein or perhaps like Warren Buffett, if he is more financial minded. Yeah, I think that when you call a kid a genius early on, not just like a very smart kid, but I'm saying when you start using the word genius and slapping that onto a kid, you have to understand like, there's a lot of pressure and also a lot of like, babying that's going to come along with having that genius kid and like, try you never know what's going to happen though, because like that's such a crazy label to put on people. But do you think it's true that the West, they do focus more on holistic life skills or social sociality? Yeah, I do. Listen, listen, if you're a genius in America, they want to know if you can help build the next weapon. Okay, that's probably what they're essential. Next rocket, weapon, Oppenheimer, H bomb, A bomb, whatever it is, they want to know if your brain is going to help them help the country in what they care about. Right. You're saying execute some sort of project. Are you going to invent some sort of agenda? Are you going to invent a new medicine for big pharma? I want to know that. You know, that's like kind of the thing in America. Well, maybe I think in China it's almost like, um, somebody was just like, yeah, man, I had a friend who had photographic memory and then he's just in jail because he's got multiple addictions and someone said, yeah, it's because he could never forget the bad things either. Yeah, that's really interesting. Somebody said, incredible gifts like that sometimes mean that other parts of the brain are lacking because they just got all the game VC points got over distributed to those certain points. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that's true? Um, I Q is not the same as being motivated, hardworking, successful, or likable. Someone said the gifted sometimes struggle to find purpose. This guy said, um, you know, personal growth was missed in the early stages of development because they got pushed academically to bring glory to the family because the family feels so cool because this kid is so smart, but their kid the whole time is being underdeveloped in other things that aren't going to show up until way later. I mean, I guess it even happens to young kids that are really good at sports, right? Sometimes they could get babied and they're not developing the coach ability or the other things like that. Somebody said, well, why take on the stress of holding a job and paying bills when you can pass that stress on to your elderly parents? And someone said, yeah, maybe this guy is actually super smart, but he's just super lazy. So he just actually like pulled off exactly what he wanted to do. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, nobody says anything about his ideals, you know, and this guy, Andrew, this guy who was coming in, he was Chinese and this was on Yahoo comments. He basically blamed it on the society for saying just like, man, they just didn't have any development. Chinese culture is so unbalanced because China is not a full meritocracy. Nothing really comes from hard work other than bringing honor to your parents. But if your parents still aren't the right type and, you know, like from the right families, it doesn't fully matter. So then basically this guy used as an opportunity to criticize the entire structure of the system. Wow. But then other people were really blaming it on the parents. So what do you think it is? Is it like the parents trying to milk the kid too young or is it really like this in the entire society? But I was thinking it's probably both, right? Yeah, it's probably both. Yeah. He was talking about Yao Ming. You know, interestingly enough, Andrew, he compared this guy to Ye Jianlian because Ye Jianlian got shown as a basketball prodigy, but obviously he never learned the other skills like communication and gameplay IQ at a high level. Basically, this guy said, I am a school psychologist. The biggest predictor of success is not intelligence or completing a college degree. It is mental health. Too many parents ignore that and instead push good grades and academic accolades. None of that matters if you are not mentally stable. Yeah, no, that's a really good point. And I definitely think that that is overlooked overseas. Somebody said, I always say that life is kind of like a video game when you build a character. Literally, if you have all the points and intelligence, but very low points and motivation, it is not going to give you a lot of good things in life other than provide you bragging rights at dinner. And then somebody just said, yeah, this guy got shortchanged in the looks department. He did not get any VC distributed. I mean, without motivation in life, man, a lot of talent doesn't matter. It really doesn't, man, even in basketball, in sports, even if you have talent at a young age, but you're not staying motivated or with a direction or mentally or emotionally, you can't handle it because maybe he maybe he just wanted to live a regular life. Maybe he just wanted a girlfriend and maybe he just wanted to maybe he's watching all these Douyin like Xiaohong Chu videos. And he's like, wow, like, look at the life that these right. He's watching like a higher brother. Yeah, like, why work? Why work? I'll be a rapper like Robin gone. You know, smoked out police stations all your PlayStation will never break up with me. Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, it's true, man. It's dude, life is so complicated. There's so many things everybody's like trying to, you know, maybe he felt like, yeah, nobody ever asked me. I just wanted a baddie and to hit the club and pop bottles with models and nobody ever asked me what I want. They just wanted me to calculate this equation. So Andrew, these are comments from the East. This guy made a really, really good insight into the Chinese family where he was saying his parents probably told him when he was young that they were very rich and they gave him some sort of distorted sense of purpose and distorted sense of entitlement as evidenced by the fact that he was demanding a $1 million flat to live in Beijing just to go finish his PhD. So basically he was saying that it's interesting because sometimes in the West, parents might lie to their kids about how much, how little money they have to give the kid motivation. But in China, because it's a descendant of an imperial society that's very like aristocratic centric, the parents might lie to the kid about how rich they are. Right. How weird is that? I mean that is, I don't want to say it's 100 out of 100, but it is true that sometimes Asian families try to hide from the child their financial situation. Yeah, that's true. But I think it's weird that the kids want to stay motivated in China if they feel rich, but here kids stay more motivated if they feel poor. No, it just goes to show you how different the motherboard is. Somebody said, yeah, this is a strawberry generation. They are so easily bruised, like a strawberry. That's a funny one. Somebody said, yeah, reincarnated happy Buddha. Just follow his life to gain enlightenment. Is it maybe he just found Buddha? Well, he just desires nothing. So he wants nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about eating the rotten vegetables though. Somebody said the world doesn't owe him a living. Neither do his parents owe him. He owes society a responsibility. And I think actually this is what he's rebelling against. You know what I'm saying? Because you take a guy, I don't know. I mean, he was cute when he was a kid, but let's just say he was like, not considered good looking by the time he's 18, right? And he's got this crazy, gigantic brain on him. Everybody's looking at him like, yeah, what are you going to invent for us? What algorithms are you going to solve? At least the basis of this fundamental theory so somebody else can go build something in industry. Yeah. Progress the society. And he's like, nobody is asking me what I want. Yeah. And that's, I think that comes as a, that's a short, that's a downside of like not developing a personality that people want to cheer for. I think if you're a really smart person and people want to cheer for you, you, the world is at your fingertips. You can rise up, people will follow you, you'll feel motivated, but like this guy, you know, his parents probably didn't care if he was likable because they were like, oh, he's just so smart. But then if he's not likable, then people don't like care about his life, you know? So yeah, it is crazy. It looks like he used to look like Shanghai Poppy when he was young. I don't even know. It could seem like that he maybe was feeling used by society, almost like, hey, you have this brain. So help us out. It's almost like he felt like, and there may be evidence to support it, that society was squeezing his brain for the juice. But who cares about the whole, like he, he's like, I'm not just a brain, like quit squeezing my brain. Yeah. Like, like he had a duty to forego his adolescence to not have fun when he was younger, to not release dopamine, to not live a regular life. And his obligation and duty was to do something great in academics. And it's also already like, you know, that Dushura and culture in China, which is like a scholarly thing, it's existed for longer than anywhere else on earth is not a oxytocin dopamine releasing lane to be used to have to be a eunuch. This guy's from a fourth tier city. I'd want to talk to his friends. I mean, I think that to find out more, you'd have to talk to his friends, any girls or people that he had relationships with kind of see. Do you think it's unfair that somebody looks at this guy, Zhang and is like, you failed society, you failed China. But then if you're like a rich F boy or F girl of a like a very wealthy family and you're not smart, nobody ever tells you, yeah, you have a responsibility with all the wealth you inherited. Because those a lot of those kids just go in and have fun. Yeah. Yeah. But then you're like a poor kid with a huge brain. And they're like, everybody's like, look at it, you're already a not as I already not going to be tight. You're looking at a life of just brain crunching for the rest of your life. And everybody's like, you have a responsibility. Yeah, I always thought that was interesting. That is messed up. I think it is. I think, I think people look at smart people more as tools that they should do something for me, because that's why you're smart. Versus like if you're even just good looking and rich. What is anybody going to tell you know what everybody looks at you and goes, I do the same thing. If I was in your situation, you look like you're releasing a lot of dope for me. It's unfair, man. You got to treat smart kids as regular people too. Listen guys, life is made up of a lot of parts, man. I think you got the zone you're born into, Andrew. It's just like Hunger Games. Everybody's born into a different zone. Then you got base camp training camp, right? How did you perform in training camp? Then did you get shot off out, you know, out of this cannon onto the mountain, right? And then you get a bicycle. But Andrew, not everybody got the same bicycle. And some people land with a squad of bicycles like Lance Armstrong. Other people are on a solo bicycle. And then once you hit the trail up the mountain, you got to make reads on which path you want to ride. You can, you got one bike, one body, one soul, and you can't ride all the paths up the mountain. So you got to deviate from the one you're born into or maybe you got shot into that one. So you're like, it just makes more sense with the natural inertia. I'm just going to ride up. Maybe you get distracted by a hot spring. Maybe your mission imperative is to reach the peak or maybe it's to go, whatever, to just save other people. You know what I'm saying? And the crazy thing about life, Andrew, is while you're on this crazy amalgamation of different video games, you still have to have a good time. And maybe this guy just figured like, I'm opting out at this point. Right? Yeah. So anyway, guys, let us know what you think of this story in the comment section below. It's going viral all around Asia a little bit in the West, but mostly in Asia because they, they just care about really big academic brains with big processors. I think more over there. Plus this guy's Asian. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. I think a lot of valid points on all sides. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.