the.com/prodigy

proof that talent arrives early but mastery still bills by the hour

means A person, especially a child, with exceptional and unusually early talent or ability.

from From Latin 'prodigium,' which meant an omen or portent — a strange, marvelous sign sent by the gods. The word first pointed to anything unnatural or wondrous (a two-headed calf, a comet, a monstrous birth) before English narrowed it, by way of the 16th century, to the more flattering 'wonder of a person.' So a prodigy was once closer to an eerie miracle than a gifted kid — the awe stayed, the strangeness faded.

origin: Latin prodigium meant omen or monster, not gifted child
mozart: composed at five, died broke at thirty-five
burnout risk: early peaks often flatten by adulthood
10,000 hours: prodigies just start counting younger
the game: a math whiz can do moves before reading

for instance

mozart — composed first symphony at age 8 in 1764

bobby fischer — became world chess champion at age 29 in 1972, mastered chess as a child

paganini — virtuoso violinist who revolutionized technique in early 1800s, performing technically impossible pieces