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The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

nytimes.com

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Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#21

Post by qmalxp »

solidangle wrote: post #10
Jun8 wrote: post #2

The idea of a world class mathematician as as weird genius is common and may be said is not totally without base (Perelman comes to mind). Tao's interactions on his blog is always unassuming, trying to help, "super normal" as this article puts it. But to me the even more amazing thing is how good an educator he is. Most mathematicians I have encountered were of the "proof is left as an exercise" type, where if you di…

I used Tao's books on Real Analysis during college and my feelings are mixed on his capabilities as an educator. On the one hand his books were really great as he gave a lot of proofs (although most proofs were still left to the reader, but I guess that you can't really learn Analysis without proving Rolle's Theorem or the First Theorem of Calculus on your own) and what I also really liked was that he made no assumpt…

It's probably worth pointing out that Good Educator != Good Author. I have heard from people who would know that your guess is not so far off, but having taken classes from him I can attest he is an excellent teacher in addition to being a world class mathematician.

I also want to add that although he is extremely friendly and helpful, it'd be dishonest to say he isn't a bit weird. However, that is probably just an ingredient/consequence of greatness; I reckon most of the big name tech founders discussed on these forums are a bit weird.

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#22

Post by nilkn »

shas3 wrote: post #15
nilkn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I very much agree with the point you're making here, I don't known if Witten (assuming you mean Edward Witten, of string theory fame) and Einstein were the best choices. Einstein basically is THE stereotype of the aloof genius.

> Einstein basically is THE stereotype of the aloof genius. 'Aloof' is a subjective term and you are entitled to judge him that way if you want to. I'll assume, 'aloofness' to mean that his thinking was confined to his work and that he lived by himself without much contact with the outside world (a la Pearlman). The reality may have been the exact opposite of this, if you look at his biography. My main source is Walt…

It doesn't necessarily mean that his thinking didn't extend beyond physics or that his social contact didn't extend beyond his office. In this case it's more about an indifference towards social conventions, e.g., his famous messy hair which is now the definitive image of the mad scientist.

As for Witten, I just looked up a video of him on YouTube. One of the top comments, unfortunately very inflammatory:

"If Witten wasn't a mathematician he would have been a serial killer."

I supposed this is referring to his unorthodox mannerisms of speech.

(The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6b3DjOnv3I)

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#23

Post by fraserharris »

shas3 wrote: post #15
nilkn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I very much agree with the point you're making here, I don't known if Witten (assuming you mean Edward Witten, of string theory fame) and Einstein were the best choices. Einstein basically is THE stereotype of the aloof genius.

> Einstein basically is THE stereotype of the aloof genius. 'Aloof' is a subjective term and you are entitled to judge him that way if you want to. I'll assume, 'aloofness' to mean that his thinking was confined to his work and that he lived by himself without much contact with the outside world (a la Pearlman). The reality may have been the exact opposite of this, if you look at his biography. My main source is Walt…

It's incorrect to label Isaac Newton's (1642 - 1726) alchemy as fairly weird for that era. Modern chemistry was invented during the same period. For example, Robert Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist, which argued that chemicals were composed of atoms, was published in 1661. It was not until the 1720's that the distinction between chemistry and alchemy was thoroughly established.

"The terms "chemia" and "alchemia" were used as synonyms in the early modern period, and the differences between alchemy, chemistry and small-scale assaying and metallurgy were not as neat as in the present day. There were important overlaps between practitioners, and trying to classify them into alchemists, chemists and craftsmen is anachronistic."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#24

Post by wooderson »

tokenadult wrote: post #4

The write-up about Tao when he was ten years old [1] by Miraca Gross mentions Tao's connection to Julian Stanley, the founder of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University. I had opportunity to correspond with Stanley before he died, and the evolution of his views about the education of mathematically precocious young people is quite interesting. A 2006 retrospective by Stanley and co-author Mich…

Terry did attend university at a very young age. He got his PhD when he was 21.

If he sounds normal in talking about his generals, it's because his peers are some the best young mathematicians in the world (and about 4-5 years older) and his evaluators are some of the absolute best mathematicians in the world.

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#25

Post by cschmidt »

IntoTheSwamp wrote: post #20

Design question: Why do authors take nice sounding quotes from the text and put them in large text aside the article? Is it to keep people interested, as in the reader is thinking "This article is awful" and then they see an amazing quote farther down the page and decide to keep reading? Maybe the writers at nytimes have a picture quota and putting pictures of lines from the article technically counts? Maybe WE as re…

That's called a pull quote. Magazines have used them in print for a very long time.

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#26

Post by nsajko »

shas3 wrote: post #3

Authors routinely cherry pick mathematicians / scientists to perpetuate the 'scientist as weirdo' myth. It is fundamentally dishonest and misleads the general population. Here, the author chooses, Newton, Nash, and Pearlman. Of that, Nash was diagnozed and treated for a mental illness. That doesn't make him a weirdo at all. There is very likely no causative relationship between passion for math or science and schizop…

Surely you meant to say 'Perelman', not 'Pearlman'. :)

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#27

Post by shas3 »

nsajko wrote: post #26
shas3 wrote: post #3

Authors routinely cherry pick mathematicians / scientists to perpetuate the 'scientist as weirdo' myth. It is fundamentally dishonest and misleads the general population. Here, the author chooses, Newton, Nash, and Pearlman. Of that, Nash was diagnozed and treated for a mental illness. That doesn't make him a weirdo at all. There is very likely no causative relationship between passion for math or science and schizop…

Surely you meant to say 'Perelman', not 'Pearlman'. :)

I guess I'm allowed to correct a posteriori, when my spelling evokes the true 'Pearlman'.

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#28

Post by oldmanjay »

IntoTheSwamp wrote: post #20

Design question: Why do authors take nice sounding quotes from the text and put them in large text aside the article? Is it to keep people interested, as in the reader is thinking "This article is awful" and then they see an amazing quote farther down the page and decide to keep reading? Maybe the writers at nytimes have a picture quota and putting pictures of lines from the article technically counts? Maybe WE as re…

The need to fill story space so they have enough places to put ads, and ideally they fill that space without doing any expensive content creation.

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#29

Post by mikeyouse »

gohrt wrote: post #17
davmre wrote: post #7

This article does a much better job than many explaining what math research is actually like. I particularly like the "chess with the devil" metaphor: The steady state of mathematical research is to be completely stuck. It is a process that Charles Fefferman of Princeton, himself a onetime math prodigy turned Fields medalist, likens to "playing chess with the devil." The rules of the devil’s game are special, though:…

To be clear, Tao doesn't say that he is not a genius. Tao was known as a once-in-a-generation mathematical genius before he was 10 years old. (There was a magazine article about him and super-gifted education in Australia.) Both of Tao's brothers have extremely high IQ (>150). Tao claims that you can contribute nonzero progress to mathematics without being a genius, but even so, the requirements he lays out aren't re…

Completely off-topic ethical prompt; Should society fund the harvesting of eggs / sperm from his parents to serve as a genius bank for surrogate parents? Could 1,000 children with equal capabilities dramatically alter the course of humanity?

Re: The Singular Mind of Terry Tao

#30

Post by jacobolus »

solidangle wrote: post #10
Jun8 wrote: post #2

The idea of a world class mathematician as as weird genius is common and may be said is not totally without base (Perelman comes to mind). Tao's interactions on his blog is always unassuming, trying to help, "super normal" as this article puts it. But to me the even more amazing thing is how good an educator he is. Most mathematicians I have encountered were of the "proof is left as an exercise" type, where if you di…

I used Tao's books on Real Analysis during college and my feelings are mixed on his capabilities as an educator. On the one hand his books were really great as he gave a lot of proofs (although most proofs were still left to the reader, but I guess that you can't really learn Analysis without proving Rolle's Theorem or the First Theorem of Calculus on your own) and what I also really liked was that he made no assumpt…

For anyone looking for a Real Analysis textbook, I’ve heard several recommendations for Pugh as an alternative to Rudin.
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