Comment by jasonwatkinspdx

My brother was something of a prodigy. Whatever it is that people like Carmack have, he had it too (and Carmack was one of his personal heros).

I would say with my brother it wasn't just that he was analytically extremely sharp, it's that he could focus it on things in a way that bordered on unhealthy obcession.

For example during undergrad he took a semester off because he burned himself out taking an insane course load, while also working on research as an undergrad.

Anyhow he spent that semester and the following summer at my parents house, and he spent months in basically the same pattern. Work on his research topic on the family PC until he needs to read a paper or think about something, at which point he'd roll the office chair over to the nearby couch and flop onto that. Every once in a while he'd disappear to his old bedroom to sleep for a few hours or take a shower or such.

And I mean he lived basically half a year like that, just relentlessly drilling into his research topic with every waking moment.