Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

This really reminded me of the first part Flowers for Algernon. The main character undergoes a treatment which improves is intelligence and the story is narrated via a series of diary entries which become successively more fluent and sophisticated.

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#5

Post by poidos » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

canadiantim wrote: post #2

Interesting it's hosted on gwern...

Gwern hosts a lot of PDFs -- see https://gwern.net/archiving

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#6

Post by jibal » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 4:51 AM UTC

Humbling.

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#7

Post by markus_zhang » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 4:53 AM UTC

jibal wrote: post #6

Humbling.

Indeed. He definitely knows more Math than I do.

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#8

Post by chao- » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

This brings to mind the childhood of John Stuart Mill:

- Learned Greek starting age three.

- Was studying Plato at age six.

- Studied Latin starting at age eight.

And more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Biography

I guess it helps that he had Jeremy Bentham hanging around his house from an early age.

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#9

Post by jorl17 » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 5:06 AM UTC

markisus wrote: post #4

This really reminded me of the first part Flowers for Algernon. The main character undergoes a treatment which improves is intelligence and the story is narrated via a series of diary entries which become successively more fluent and sophisticated.

Had me in tears by the end. One of my favorite books. So glad a friend recommended it to me.

Re: Terence Tao, at 8 years old (1984) [pdf]

#10

Post by TheChaplain » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 5:10 AM UTC

I am interested in his new book, "Six Math Essentials", but I doubt it will be on my very low level of math understanding..