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

(gwern.net)

112 points | by gurjeet 14 hours ago

7 comments

  • chao- 36 minutes ago
    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.

  • markisus 1 hour ago
    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.
    • LostMyLogin 12 minutes ago
      We had to read it in middle school and man did it have me in tears at the end.
    • jorl17 34 minutes ago
      Had me in tears by the end. One of my favorite books. So glad a friend recommended it to me.
  • creamyhorror 26 minutes ago
    Incredible. Knowing about Abelian groups, being able to graph y = x^3 — 2x^2 + x in one minute, and performing integration at age 7. Chomping up university-level math textbooks by 8. A classical math prodigy.

    I definitely empathize with "his preference for using an analytic, highly logical problem-solving strategy" (I'm not a genius ofc). It's often more immediately clear for me than visual/spatial manipulation.

  • TheChaplain 29 minutes ago
    I am interested in his new book, "Six Math Essentials", but I doubt it will be on my very low level of math understanding..
  • elromulous 1 hour ago
    My brain initially parsed the title as an obituary title and I was really sad for a moment.
  • jibal 48 minutes ago
    Humbling.
    • markus_zhang 47 minutes ago
      Indeed. He definitely knows more Math than I do.
  • canadiantim 1 hour ago
    Interesting it's hosted on gwern...