18 years is more than enough time to ripen.

- Marquis de Lafayette was only 19 when he helped the US win independence.

- Alexander began conquering when he was 20, smashed Persia at 25, and "wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer" at 30.

- Pascal and Galois did revolutionary math before 20.

- Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein at 18!

We need more rigorous secondary education and a pathway that lets people with rocket-ship trajectories skip useless tertiary education. I am sick and tired coddling mediocre people by pretending geniuses don't exist. If I ran things, I'd set up magnet schools nation-wide.