"Harry, smiling, had asked Professor Quirrell what level he played at, and Professor Quirrell, also smiling, had responded, One level higher than you."
It comes from the failed assumption that those you know are those you can be more honest with, since they want to see you succeed. Otherwise, why are you friends?
That ends up not being the case, since most people aren't very discerning with whom they accept friend requests from, and facebook encourages making as many connections as possible as well.
As a result, the only current way to be honest online is through anonymity. I'm not sure if Path App has made any headway in this regard.
Grandmaster Judit, Grandmaster Susan, International Master Sophia, and their parents, Klára and László Polgár might disagree.
László Polgár had a thesis that one does simply raise a prodigy and managed to do pretty well on that score, given that he and his wife Klára proceeded to then raise three female chess prodigies.
Of course one swallow does not a summer make, so it could just be blind luck, but it is an interesting and fairly persuasive case.
I believe one can, though it takes intelligent parents who make an effort to do so, and money as to not to be constrained by social norms. Over the last decade of my life, I've been evaluating how my parents raised me, how my generation and the previous two generations were raised, and constantly coming up with solutions based on the opportunities provided by different income levels. While I'm not a sociologist, I believe I could write a book on my observations, reasoning, and conclusions.
Like in Judit Polgár's development; if a child was trained in a subject early on and provided the right opportunities, then "genius" can be developed. When I have kids, my plan won't be to focus extensively on one subject (like chess), but on several subjects, including Esperanto like Judit Polgár was taught.
The resources needed are less than you would think. A child raised with specific kinds of support and challenges is more likely to have an impact on the world than one raised with every advantage. You can get an idea of the useful kinds of challenges and support by looking at the childhoods of actual successful people.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0910707561 is a good source of insight based on it. However I would humbly suggest that consciously attempting to follow some of its advice would be legally actionable.
