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Masterclass on mathematical thinking

terrytao.wordpress.com

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Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#11

Post by umvi »

uoaei wrote: post #8
paulpauper wrote: post #3

probably helps also to have a 1 in 100 million IQ too, but sounds like fun anyway. I am not sure how some of thee masterclasses are useful. Like the one by the astronaut . I don't plan on going into space anytime soon. Maybe Elon Musk would enjoy that one. No amount of videos will make even a typical PhD in math even as close to as good as him. It's 90% genes , 10% other factors.

Is it really common opinion that TT is smart because of his genes? I would think having a helpful and engaged math-fluent father and lots of encouragement from an early age has way more to do with it. You can't seriously believe that an introduction into mathematical thinking from an early age and close advision from math-fluent parents is only 10% of the reason that TT is where he is today.

From the wiki:

> Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760

I think genetics have more to do with this level of achievement than encouragement from an engaged father. Tao has 2 brothers - why aren't they mathematical supergeniuses too? Either he was born with a brain that has extraordinary analytical ability, or he was born with an insane work ethic not commonly associated with young kids. But even then, are there reports of him having to work super hard to understand things? If you can do advanced algebra at age 5, I'd say your brain is something extraordinary. Whether the underlying reason for that extraordinary brain is due to genes or some other trigger, it likely was not mainly due to an "encouraging father", IMO.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#12

Post by supernova87a »

Watching the trailer, makes me think that people who may enjoy this series will also enjoy a book called "Aha" by Martin Gardner (from probably 40 years ago)[0].

It has a lot of amusingly illustrated insight problems that show you how thinking about a problem differently simplifies getting to the answer a lot. It's probably aimed at advanced teenagers, but in fact the lessons there are some that even many adults probably have not come across before. I mean, I haven't watched the Masterclass, but I imagine Terrence Tao isn't teaching multimanifold group theory or something anyway, so this is the kind of insightful more daily-math problems he's helping people to understand how to think about.

[0] search your favorite, ahem, LIBrary GENeric source of books to find it.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#13

Post by paulpauper »

uoaei wrote: post #8
paulpauper wrote: post #3

probably helps also to have a 1 in 100 million IQ too, but sounds like fun anyway. I am not sure how some of thee masterclasses are useful. Like the one by the astronaut . I don't plan on going into space anytime soon. Maybe Elon Musk would enjoy that one. No amount of videos will make even a typical PhD in math even as close to as good as him. It's 90% genes , 10% other factors.

Is it really common opinion that TT is smart because of his genes? I would think having a helpful and engaged math-fluent father and lots of encouragement from an early age has way more to do with it. You can't seriously believe that an introduction into mathematical thinking from an early age and close advision from math-fluent parents is only 10% of the reason that TT is where he is today.

I don't think you understand the difference between being good at math and being at his level. Good parents can make the difference between being good at math or mediocre at math, but not knowing higher level concepts at the age of 15 or so . Or PhD at 22 or something. There are thousands of professors in the US even in math, how many produce super genius math kids with similar ability? Two 120-IQ parents a more more likely to produce a 110 IQ kids than someone with a 170+ IQ like TT; that is something else.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#14

Post by michaelhah »

paulpauper wrote: post #3

probably helps also to have a 1 in 100 million IQ too, but sounds like fun anyway. I am not sure how some of thee masterclasses are useful. Like the one by the astronaut . I don't plan on going into space anytime soon. Maybe Elon Musk would enjoy that one. No amount of videos will make even a typical PhD in math even as close to as good as him. It's 90% genes , 10% other factors.

Probably getting to his level is highly genetically dependent but that’s not what watching a Masterclass vid is about. Probably really interesting but I would likely forget to cancel and i am planning on living forever so I’d end up paying an infinite amount of money for this.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#15

Post by paulpauper »

Graffur wrote: post #7

My first reaction to this blog post was kind of negative because Master Class is not free. I watched the teaser video and it's actually pretty inspiring. As someone who has done undergraduate Computer Science level Math, but completely forgotten most things about Math except for simple Algebra, I am going to try this. The cost is €16/month which is cheaper than Netflix. I just cancelled my Spotify recently so this is…

You are not going to go from high school math to graduate level competency with this course, obviously.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#16

Post by [deleted] »

umvi wrote: post #11
uoaei wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really common opinion that TT is smart because of his genes? I would think having a helpful and engaged math-fluent father and lots of encouragement from an early age has way more to do with it. You can't seriously believe that an introduction into mathematical thinking from an early age and close advision from math-fluent parents is only 10% of the reason that TT is where he is today.

From the wiki: > Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760 I think genetics have more to do with this level of a…

[deleted]

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#17

Post by drexlspivey »

umvi wrote: post #11
uoaei wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really common opinion that TT is smart because of his genes? I would think having a helpful and engaged math-fluent father and lots of encouragement from an early age has way more to do with it. You can't seriously believe that an introduction into mathematical thinking from an early age and close advision from math-fluent parents is only 10% of the reason that TT is where he is today.

From the wiki: > Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760 I think genetics have more to do with this level of a…

> Tao has 2 brothers - why aren't they mathematical supergeniuses too?

The previous sentence from the one you quoted states that

“Tao also has two brothers, who are living in Australia. Both formerly represented the country at the International Mathematical Olympiad”

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#18

Post by paulpauper »

umvi wrote: post #11
uoaei wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really common opinion that TT is smart because of his genes? I would think having a helpful and engaged math-fluent father and lots of encouragement from an early age has way more to do with it. You can't seriously believe that an introduction into mathematical thinking from an early age and close advision from math-fluent parents is only 10% of the reason that TT is where he is today.

From the wiki: > Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760 I think genetics have more to do with this level of a…

Regarding his brothers, imagine if IQ is like a bunch of switches. TT was born with all his switches flipped 'on' out of some maximum. His brothers were born with most of them flipped on, as were his parents. Having high IQ parents increases the odds of more switches being flipped on, but having all of them flipped is still innate.

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#19

Post by NikolaeVarius »

klyrs wrote: post #5
paulpauper wrote: post #3

probably helps also to have a 1 in 100 million IQ too, but sounds like fun anyway. I am not sure how some of thee masterclasses are useful. Like the one by the astronaut . I don't plan on going into space anytime soon. Maybe Elon Musk would enjoy that one. No amount of videos will make even a typical PhD in math even as close to as good as him. It's 90% genes , 10% other factors.

> It's 90% genes , 10% other factors. Do you have evidence to support these numbers, or the more general claim of genetic supremacy?

Genes must have something to do with it. Take the case of Srinivasa Ramanujan

No formal training in math. Made insane contributions to mathematics including solving "unsolvable" problems.

> A child prodigy by age 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his home. He was later lent a book written by S. L. Loney on advanced trigonometry.[18][19] He mastered this by the age of 13 while discovering sophisticated theorems on his own. By 14, he received merit certificates and academic awards that continued throughout his school career, and he assisted the school in the logistics of assigning its 1,200 students (each with differing needs) to its approximately 35 teachers.[14]: 27 He completed mathematical exams in half the allotted time, and showed a familiarity with geometry and infinite series. Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902; he developed his own method to solve the quartic. In the following year, he tried to solve the quintic, not knowing that it could not be solved by radicals.

If there was a method of raising kids like this "scientifically" , I bet a good portion of the worlds GDP would be put into this field of research

Re: Masterclass on mathematical thinking

#20

Post by paulpauper »

michaelhah wrote: post #14
paulpauper wrote: post #3

probably helps also to have a 1 in 100 million IQ too, but sounds like fun anyway. I am not sure how some of thee masterclasses are useful. Like the one by the astronaut . I don't plan on going into space anytime soon. Maybe Elon Musk would enjoy that one. No amount of videos will make even a typical PhD in math even as close to as good as him. It's 90% genes , 10% other factors.

Probably getting to his level is highly genetically dependent but that’s not what watching a Masterclass vid is about. Probably really interesting but I would likely forget to cancel and i am planning on living forever so I’d end up paying an infinite amount of money for this.

then what is it about then? listening to someone talk about their job? Can't you do that for free on YouTube?
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