We have a sample size of 600 + million ppl between the US and Western Europe with full access to food, electricity, and other modern necessities, not third world countries. How many are as smart as him.
I'll accept that nobody is, but his mom was a math teacher. Few of us get that kind of leg up, certainly not 600m+. When I was 5, "don't get shot" was already getting a significant share of my brain's power, and I had it better than most. Sure, he's got a brain like gasoline, but don't discount the spark and oxygen that allowed the genius to deflagrate. And don't just throw numbers around like that if you don't have proof. If you respect the mathematics, act like it.
And how many of them were able to dust up a person who could explain to them not only how algebra works, but why one should study it? At the age where they can actually do it and not get bored?
Math education comes up here regularly, and we have lots of smart math people here, but the story is often that some commentator was simply never shown anything interesting in their whole schooling. I'd never have given it much thought were it not for one particular math teacher who put a lot of effort into me and a few other interested kids. I still keep in touch with him.
