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I would say Tao had everything this article talks about. Innate intelligence, a great environment where his parents made sure of his opportunities, and the hard

I would say Tao had everything this article talks about. Innate intelligence, a great environment where his parents made sure of his opportunities, and the hard work and persistence required to succeed.

xapata 10y ago
The trouble is it's hard to know how many other people had exactly the same characteristics but not the luck. Without knowing that, we don't know how useful this definition of "genius" is.
- nopinsight 10y ago
  In the case of mathematical accomplishments, there is an objective way to predict people's future possibilities: How young and how well does the person do in International Math Olympiads? These Fields medalists all fit the pattern: Maryam Mirzakhani, Grigori Perelman, Terence Tao. Check out others at IMO Hall of Fame--all top listers I checked are doing very well, although many of them are still young and studying. [1] So it does seem most top math prodigies who stay in the field or adjacent ones continue to produce exemplary works, and luck does not seem to play a huge factor there. I mean, luck may contribute to a given single accomplishment, but it also happens because the person works on the problem from many different angles, using creative approaches based on sufficiently deep understanding. If someone tackles several problems with such ingenuity, at least one of them is bound to get solved. In other fields, we have fewer objective measures, but from my years of experience teaching and mentoring gifted and highly gifted kids, you can tell how well they will do academically at the university level by the time they are in grade 3. [1] https://www.imo-official.org/hall.aspx https://www.imo-official.org/hall.aspx
  - xapata 10y ago
    What portion of gifted children participate in the math Olympiad?
    - Aperson4321 10y ago
      I am not an expert and I don't have the numbers, but not all "gifted" are talented in mathematics. Also the study of the field of mathematics is a task of endurance and slow but steady work, this is something the highest tier gifted (profoundly gifted) tend to suck at even with proper disipline training, but the profoundly gifted is so few in number that they don't really have an effect on the percentage. Gifted often have one or more of the five overexcitabilities, one of those are Intellectual overexcitability, one can guess that a notable part of gifted who participate got Intellectual overexcitability, then you can make a guess that ca 20% of gifted got Intellectual overexcitability, that 50% fail to get that far in school because of the problems gifted face, then 30% from those gifted living in shitty enviroments that stops them from learning about the joy of mathematics and then 50% of those in turn actually puts in the time to learn mathematics, then 25% is actually good enough to enter so maybe: 0,375% The education system really sucks for gifted kids, especially highly giften, exceptionally gifted and profoundly gifted, the mildly gifted and moderately gifted can be helped alot by the imperfect solution of being moved up a few classes.

xapata 10y ago

The trouble is it's hard to know how many other people had exactly the same characteristics but not the luck. Without knowing that, we don't know how useful this definition of "genius" is.

nopinsight 10y ago
In the case of mathematical accomplishments, there is an objective way to predict people's future possibilities: How young and how well does the person do in International Math Olympiads? These Fields medalists all fit the pattern: Maryam Mirzakhani, Grigori Perelman, Terence Tao. Check out others at IMO Hall of Fame--all top listers I checked are doing very well, although many of them are still young and studying. [1] So it does seem most top math prodigies who stay in the field or adjacent ones continue to produce exemplary works, and luck does not seem to play a huge factor there. I mean, luck may contribute to a given single accomplishment, but it also happens because the person works on the problem from many different angles, using creative approaches based on sufficiently deep understanding. If someone tackles several problems with such ingenuity, at least one of them is bound to get solved. In other fields, we have fewer objective measures, but from my years of experience teaching and mentoring gifted and highly gifted kids, you can tell how well they will do academically at the university level by the time they are in grade 3. [1] https://www.imo-official.org/hall.aspx https://www.imo-official.org/hall.aspx
- xapata 10y ago
  What portion of gifted children participate in the math Olympiad?
  - Aperson4321 10y ago
    I am not an expert and I don't have the numbers, but not all "gifted" are talented in mathematics. Also the study of the field of mathematics is a task of endurance and slow but steady work, this is something the highest tier gifted (profoundly gifted) tend to suck at even with proper disipline training, but the profoundly gifted is so few in number that they don't really have an effect on the percentage. Gifted often have one or more of the five overexcitabilities, one of those are Intellectual overexcitability, one can guess that a notable part of gifted who participate got Intellectual overexcitability, then you can make a guess that ca 20% of gifted got Intellectual overexcitability, that 50% fail to get that far in school because of the problems gifted face, then 30% from those gifted living in shitty enviroments that stops them from learning about the joy of mathematics and then 50% of those in turn actually puts in the time to learn mathematics, then 25% is actually good enough to enter so maybe: 0,375% The education system really sucks for gifted kids, especially highly giften, exceptionally gifted and profoundly gifted, the mildly gifted and moderately gifted can be helped alot by the imperfect solution of being moved up a few classes.