Origins of a pool genius

Interesting piece this morning on NPR's Morning Edition about Efren Reyes, a 52 year-old Filipino who some consider the best pool player ever.

"He plays shots that nobody else does," says German player Ralf Souquet. "He can see shots in his mind and his brain three or four shots ahead. We all try to do it, but he sees different patterns and different paths than we do. And he has by far the best cue-ball control. The cue ball seems to be his."

How did he become great? For starters, Reyes literally grew up in his uncle's pool hall in Manila -- his bed was a mattress on a pool table. When he started playing in earnest, around 8 years old (standing on Coke cases to see over the table), he would practice from 6am-9am before school, then play around town after school, and then practice more at his uncle's after closing time until he went to sleep.

Comments

[bertram]

There was an article about Efren Reyes a couple of years ago in the Atlantic Monthly
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200503/jordan

[David Shenk]

Thanks, bertram. The Atlantic piece provides some additional details of his upbringing. He was fifth of nine chilren, born in extreme poverty, and was five when his parents sent him to live in his uncle's pool hall. What a powerful image: this very poor five year-old, away from his parents, suddenly thrust into this exhilarating pool hall atmosphere and soaking it up, day and night, until he finally starts actively playing at age eight. Imagine in particular those three years from 5 to 8: The pool hall was effectively his home and his school. At an age when the brain is particularly malleable, he was constantly studying the movement of that ball.

[Tim Dellinger]

Efren Reyes certainly has a fantantastic story, and I don't want to disparage his abilities or accomplishments, but I'll take this opportunity to point out that in general, "genius" is not neccessarily a wise career choice. For every successful {pool, poker, piano, physics, golf, visual art &c.} genius, there are lots of failed geniuses who have devoted lots of time and effort to their craft, but for one reason or another just can't make it work as a career. Additionally, it's not exactly clear that making a career out of being a genius makes you happy: when I see the pictures in the masthead of Einstein, Ray Charles, and Picasso, I think of failed marriages, heroin addiction, and povertly/mental illness.

[David Shenk]

Fantastic comment, Tim. I'm definitely planning on addressing this important facet in the blog and the book. Becoming sensational at something usually involves tremendous sacrifices, and we should try to identify what those sacrifices are and help people weigh whether they're worthwhile. Also -- as a society, I think it's pretty obvious that we don't want too many geniuses or extreme talents. We want a bunch, but not too many.

On the other hand, this project is not just about being a genius or an extreme talent. It's also for learning about what it takes to be pretty-darn-good at something, and doing so in a way that is emotionally and physically healthy. I'll be writing more about those distinctions as time goes on.

[mathephysics]

a genius in the simplest explaining is : when a smart person see a thing in somthing at the same time the gifted persone see in that thing 2 or 3 things but the genius seee 10 things in that thing wich saw the smart and the gifted personss

[mathephysics]

a genius in the simplest explaining is : when a smart person see a thing in somthing at the same time the gifted persone see in that thing 2 or 3 things but the genius seee 10 things in that thing wich saw the smart and the gifted personss

[mathephysics]

why geniuses not do well at school?
the genius mind is very slow in the growth of his intellegent , but the smart and the gift persons have very larg scale growing in intellegencey , threr intellegencey grow untill age max. 21 , but the genius start its genius to blow at thet age and it growint until age 50 , so imagine a man with a high intellegencey at that ages between 21 to 50 , that why a genius is veryvery rare to find that whay they come in 100 or even 200 years or even more ,
i want to ti somthing humans can creat a smart peopls and a few gifted once but genius is god creation not humans even if te humans try to creat they will be failed in any age
genius is a god creation no elseeeeeeeeeeeeee

[mathephysics]

iq is not ascale for measuring if that persone have more than others intelegency cuzz its depend on time and how fast you can solve a quesion
but it could beif some persone solve a certain quisions in a short peroid of time and another persone did the same ,, the first persone score a very fine range more that the athore one ,,, but the other one have the ability to seee more than one probability to solve that quesion ,,,,,
so in my openion the other persone have intellegencey more far than the first persone wich have hight iq ,,, or whatttttttttt?????????
huhu

[mathephysics]

the genius dont need to practis on things or to read things to be capable to understand science or life they just can seeethat things with out to study theme , they depenance on books is very few , they like to knew and discover things with out any previous knowlage , why ?????????
cuzz they god creation
nothing else

[mathephysics]

and i want to til somthing
my dr.of mathe in my uni. tod me that im agenius , im really not laing if i do what i get to my self gust prob. , and what i did till in that blog is what i feel what my genius feel , , and im always say ::
(the mind is not the thinker but the mind is device to till the thinking but the spirit is the imagination of thinking that we traslated by our bodyyy)

[mathephysics]

mail meee if you want ,, i need to talk ,,
starnet_snare@hotmail.com

[mathephysics]

thaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx alot foe every one who listen to me

im really respect ittt
im just til what i am
im searching for some one to puplish my ideas if there is some one pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz conact with me at my email abovee