A 13-year-old boy from the US has been compared to famous journalist Nate Silver — editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight — for his ability to make predictions regarding the US presidential elections.
Adam Light, 13, had started his blog Electability Report for his friends who did not understand the elections. So he started writing emails to them every week explaining the elections to them. He later made a blog out of his emails and updated the blog every Sunday.
Later, he started assembling predictions about voting results in the primaries and has come to predict a win for Hillary Clinton. The boy was compared by Reliable Sources newsletter on Election Day to Nate Silver. After this he gained a lot more page views than his usual four.
"I mean, I probably had about 20 people reading my posts, and half of them couldn't vote," Adam said.
Both of them predicted Clinton victory, Light predicted 323, Silver predicted 302, but now both seem to be proven wrong with Donald Trump leading the elections.
"That's the super rockstar for him," said Alan Light, Adam's father and author. "But as the weeks go on, he has doubted some of Silver's stuff and doesn't think he's the gold standard he once was."
Adam's parents are both journalists and so were his grandparents. His family is also "lifelong Democrats".
"I feel like I've been a bit too biased for Hillary Clinton," said Adam.
He says while he hadn't considered a career in journalism before, he is now. It is yet to be seen if young Adam's predictions will come true.
