Bruce Cameron

The Smartest Guy in an Empty Room

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008.

I was the smartest person I knew until I met other people. Smug in my knowledge of the world, I went off to kindergarten as a mathematical prodigy, master of the complex equation “2 plus 2 equals 4.” The first person I told this to, Tom Reddinger, was awed — he didn’t even know there was a 4.

Other students, though, claimed to know this already, sneering at me and even going so far as to claim that “3 plus 3 equals 6,” which I realize is now pretty much accepted doctrine but back then was co...