What The Smartest Man in The World Can Teach You About Happiness Lessons from the life arch of Kim Ung-Yong.

5 min readDec 5, 2020

Kim Ung-Yong’s life began like that of a superhero.

He was sitting in a crib before bedtime. His mother walked in to check on him.

After she tucked him in and walked out to leave, she paused, thinking she’d heard something. She turned around, came back, and stood over him. Then she realized her baby was saying several words.¹ A 6-months old child was talking to her.

It was no fluke. Her son was gifted, literally beyond measure. But how would this affect his life?

A life of incomparable brilliance begins

There are several signs of extreme intelligence in a child:

Unusual memory
Passing intellectual milestones very early
Asking highly-specific questions about world events
Making new rules for games
Intolerance of other children

Kim blew the lid off of all these signs. By nine months, he spoke full sentences. By his first year, he spoke fluid Korean. He added Spanish, German, and English to his repertoire before turning 4. He was doing differential equations by age 5.

It isn’t shocking that Kim Ung-Yong is smart. He is the son of a physics professor and a medical school professor.²

But he took things to an entirely different level.

In fact, some argue he is the smartest living person. IQ tests are certainly flawed measuring tools. However, it’s worth noting he scored north of 210 on a formal test with a psychiatrist.

Deciding how genius a genius is, is no small task. It’s also somewhat unnecessary.

Test scores aren’t particularly reliable at high ranges. And, at a certain point, intelligence matters far less than other qualities, like passion, curiosity, and persistence.

Yet it’d be hard to argue that something special wasn’t going on in this young boy’s head.

He was without peer: capable of learning anything, faster, and more accurately than students who were years older.

Most people didn’t even believe the claims that were written about him. And so he was often brought on national TV to prove it.

His appearance on Korean television at age 7, performing math equations. (Wikimedia Commons)

His fast upbringing accelerates and explodes

At the invitation of NASA, Kim traveled to the United States, to study with and also be studied by scientists.

He completed his Ph.D. at age 15, getting near-perfect marks in every subject. He then enrolled as an employee of NASA, doing top-level research alongside astrophysicists.

Everything in his life was about maximization. How fast could he solve a problem? What was the hardest problem he could solve? Possessing a one-in-billions intelligence put a lot of homework in front of him. But then things changed.

Ten years after joining NASA’s roster, and after accumulating a mind-numbing pile of academic awards, he abruptly quit.

Here you have the smartest man in the world, whose mind dwarfs that of ivy league elites, and he walks away from it all.

Why? He wasn’t happy. He’d been born into an Asian society that prized academic excellence.

Consequently, he’d been milked for every ounce of potential from his earliest age.

Talent became a vehicle to hijack his childhood. As his star grew brighter, he felt a stronger calling for normalcy. Authenticity began to rear its beautiful head. And so he walked away.

Where he is now

Ung-Yong has a university position as a tenured professor. It’s a very prestigious, highly competitive job for most people. But for him? Not so, apparently.

Kim is still routinely targeted by Korean news outlets. They cite him as an example of failed potential, a person who let it all go to waste.

With all of his prodigious gifts, he was expected to change the world and innovate within several fields.

And that begs the question, “Who decided Kim was supposed to change the world?” It certainly wasn’t him.

Dr. Kim Ung-Yong might not be someone most of us can relate to. But he is certainly analogous, perhaps ground zero, to the problems that intelligent people face with regards to potential.

Just because someone is smart, gifted, creative, doesn’t automatically mean they want to revolutionize science.

Kim now leads a comfortable life, helping educate young people, making a good salary, doing research periodically. And most importantly, he spends time in the company of family.

No TV appearances.

No rocket ships.

Just living how he always wanted to: on his own terms.

The takeaway

Your talent or lack thereof has nothing to do with what you want.

Neither your parents, your neighbors, or your friends get to decide your life’s path. Too often, we have other people’s egos interfering in our destiny. Talent becomes a siren song for misery.

Live your own life and don’t let it be measured by other people’s assessments of your worth. There is freedom in finding a silo from judgment.

Some people are happy with a low key life. That is exactly what Kim wanted and now has.

Happiness is the great equalizer. If you are happy, their expectations no longer matter.

Society should not judge anyone with unilateral standards. Everyone has different learning levels, hopes, talents, and dreams, and we should respect that. People always try to be somebody special by neglecting their ordinary happiness. -Kim Ung-Yong

Sources

[1] Life in the high IQ Lane (2010) Hwang, Jurie

[2] Hussaini, Ambreen (2013) Intelligence Quotient: The World’s Smartest People