I didn't lie to them. They are my world. As soon as I discovered the stress that pressure was causing them, I stopped pushing it. As far as I know, excessive stress decreases mental capabilities rather than improving them.
Why should I be disappointed in them? It's like being angry at the weather for not suiting you. There are only about 1% of people on Earth with an IQ higher than 145, and even fewer of them realize their potential. However, there are no statistics on how many of these individuals are happy. I would like to do everything possible to make my daughters happy, which is a much more challenging task. They do not need to participate in a rat-race to achieve happiness though.
Elementary school teachers would read to their classes in the 80s.
They always picked books like that Shel Silvertein shit whose message
appealed more to adults than children. I remember being bored into fits
of rage and thinking "This is making me dumber. I want to go outside."
I care as I had very similar story. Look, for what it's worth, working in most of IT jobs (dev, management, support) is soul-sucking and unless you cashed out on a recent IPO and had the luck to be in the right place in the right time, it's not that different to working in any other profession.
I would suggest taking a break, clearing your head, and looking for something you'd like to learn or enjoy doing. For me, on an average, 3-4 in every 5 jobs suck. I also think this is the norm for the majority of people - you win some and you loose some. Again, try finding your happy place after taking some time off and if you still feel like this, try to pivot into something else - many of my mates who found themselves fed up with dev work, moved into other domains of IT e.g. project management. PMs who understand tech are very valuable and money can't be worse. Personally, herding cats is not for me but if you'd like a shortcut to a potentially a new career without the need to completely reinvent yourself, that may be an easy way out.
special word to distinguish those who drop out to work
We say those students are "on leave." Gates and Zuckerberg often
commend Harvard for its flexible leave policy. Given Harvard's
overambitious undergrads, the bureaucratic overhead of granting a hiatus
is a small price for the glory-by-association of a potential Microsoft
or Facebook. Come to Harvard. Even if you don't graduate, you'll be
rich and famous!
Try picking up the pieces after a massive hurricane when money can't buy
a sudden scarcity of manual skill. Max Brooks captures this in World
War Z when white collar workers become cannon fodder in the zombie apocalypse.
You spent your entire life training for a job that assumed a silicon
goalpost. Don't be mad when society moves it.
Did you not read Vonnegut's Slapstick (1976). They're everywhere!
The bulk of it is on gitee.com since China skews towards a NIH bent dating back to dynastic times.