Prodigy Won AOL's Gold Rush Game.

Michael Kearney won $1 million on AOL's scavenger hunt game "Gold Rush". Now besides winning the bounty, Michael is quite an interesting guy:

"Gold Rush" wasn't an academic competition, but intelligence certainly didn't hurt Kearney. The child prodigy graduated from high school at the age of 6, college at age 10, earned a Masters degree in chemistry at age 14, and a Masters in computer science at 18. He's currently working on his doctorate in chemistry.

Link - Thanks Tiffany!

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He's a friend of mine and I can vouch that he's as normal as any of us computer geeks are. Scavanger hunts are fun! It's a challenge, but who makes it a profession especially while working on a doctorate, sheesh! Can't a guy have a hobby, even a profitable one?

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oh, just read it again - $1 million bucks. If I was as smart as this kid I wouldn't even be wasting my time...

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It's interesting that someone this smart could be so dumb. He's still got his eye on the small potatos like the gold rush. Real intelligence doesn't lead you to play games - it leads you to starting a business or creating some new chemical that changes the world. I don't know how much money was involved in the gold rush thing, but I'm sure it doesn't compare to the real money he could be earning.