6 ms·

When you have a genius-prodigy guy like this being 'examined' -- the professors ask him questions, some (many?) he doesn't know the answer to, or perhaps an inc

When you have a genius-prodigy guy like this being 'examined' -- the professors ask him questions, some (many?) he doesn't know the answer to, or perhaps an incomplete answer to, while they (presumably) do know. Is this because they're equally genius as him? or are 'merely' much-better read than him, although maybe not as gifted in whatever other magical ways he is?

petters 7y ago
Mathematics is not only brain teasers. I remember my first lecture in topology. Our professor said that while we may be smarter and beat our teachers in things like group theory and algebra, in this subject no one was going to be better than him. Experience also matters a lot in some subjects.
enriquto 7y ago
Of course the professors were better read and had much more experience and knowledge. But you con infer from that report (even if the author tries to hide it) that the professors were extremely impressed by the young candidate.
- aetimmes 7y ago
  Terrence's own recounting of the event [1] seems to contradict you: "After many nerve-wracking minutes of closed-door deliberation, the examiners did decide to (barely) pass me; however, my advisor gently explained his disappointment at my performance, and how I needed to do better in the future." [1] https://www.ams.org/about-us/LivingProof.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A351%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22FitH%22%7D%2C648%5D https://www.ams.org/about-us/LivingProof.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22... (found elsewhere in the thread)
  - enriquto 7y ago
    The sentence before the one you quote is this: "The rest of the exam then went fairly quickly as none of the examiners had prepared any truly challenging algebra questions." Thus, he emptied the pool of questions prepared by the professors. Notice that your quote does not really contradict a good impression upon the examiners. The nerve wracking is self reported, as is the word ``barely''. The later comments by the examiners may be also a generic sentence they say to everybody. Regardless of your level, you can always benefit for being told to do better. Sure, if you ask these professors today they will probably say that they were very impressed by the young genius... but this does not really say much.
kaitai 7y ago
There are smart kids in grad school all over. Half of them flame out 'cause they never figure out how to concentrate, half of the remainder figure out how to work but then get jobs in industry rather than academia, and then of the remaining 25%, some of them become amazing professors who then ask questions of the next genius-prodigy. Tao is certainly unique, but there's a lot of genius floating around and it can come in very different configurations.
KevinSorboFan 7y ago
The thing that puts Tao in that upper echelon of mathematicians is his ability to solve unsolved problems and create new mathematics. Those aren't really the skills being tested on a qualifying exam, and you're right that it's just a matter of being more well-read.
ljcn 7y ago
Reminds me of George Dantzig, who solved two unsolved problems in statistics because he mistook them for homework. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-problem/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-proble... I wonder how many other breakthroughs have occurred in a 'hard' problem that was thought to be 'easy'.
- hkmurakami 7y ago
  There's an urban legend in the Princeton physics department of professors including questions in exams that they don't know the answer to in hopes that some student might crack it. Probably happens from time to time. I never saw it myself since I quickly realized I wouldn't cut it as a physics major there.
  - cynicalkane 7y ago
    When I was a math major at U. Chicago, there was at least one professor who did this.
    - closeparen 7y ago
      The math pirate!
dls2016 7y ago
I'm not familiar with Rudnick, but Stein (RIP) and Klainerman are giants in analysis/PDEs. They contributed much to the theories on which they were quizzing him. These are professors at one of the top mathematics institutes in the world.
michaelhoffman 7y ago
The examiners don't need to know the answers to all the questions they ask. Certainly I was asked questions in my qualifying assessment that the committee members later admitted to not knowing the answer to.
peteretep 7y ago
I don't think you need to be "much" better read than someone to pull this off. I think I could lead a much better and smarter programmer than me through -- for example -- monads, and stretch their brain a bit if they hadn't encountered them before, as part of an examination

petters 7y ago

Mathematics is not only brain teasers. I remember my first lecture in topology. Our professor said that while we may be smarter and beat our teachers in things like group theory and algebra, in this subject no one was going to be better than him. Experience also matters a lot in some subjects.

enriquto 7y ago

Of course the professors were better read and had much more experience and knowledge. But you con infer from that report (even if the author tries to hide it) that the professors were extremely impressed by the young candidate.

aetimmes 7y ago
Terrence's own recounting of the event [1] seems to contradict you: "After many nerve-wracking minutes of closed-door deliberation, the examiners did decide to (barely) pass me; however, my advisor gently explained his disappointment at my performance, and how I needed to do better in the future." [1] https://www.ams.org/about-us/LivingProof.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A351%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22FitH%22%7D%2C648%5D https://www.ams.org/about-us/LivingProof.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22... (found elsewhere in the thread)
- enriquto 7y ago
  The sentence before the one you quote is this: "The rest of the exam then went fairly quickly as none of the examiners had prepared any truly challenging algebra questions." Thus, he emptied the pool of questions prepared by the professors. Notice that your quote does not really contradict a good impression upon the examiners. The nerve wracking is self reported, as is the word ``barely''. The later comments by the examiners may be also a generic sentence they say to everybody. Regardless of your level, you can always benefit for being told to do better. Sure, if you ask these professors today they will probably say that they were very impressed by the young genius... but this does not really say much.

kaitai 7y ago

There are smart kids in grad school all over. Half of them flame out 'cause they never figure out how to concentrate, half of the remainder figure out how to work but then get jobs in industry rather than academia, and then of the remaining 25%, some of them become amazing professors who then ask questions of the next genius-prodigy. Tao is certainly unique, but there's a lot of genius floating around and it can come in very different configurations.

KevinSorboFan 7y ago

The thing that puts Tao in that upper echelon of mathematicians is his ability to solve unsolved problems and create new mathematics. Those aren't really the skills being tested on a qualifying exam, and you're right that it's just a matter of being more well-read.

ljcn 7y ago

Reminds me of George Dantzig, who solved two unsolved problems in statistics because he mistook them for homework. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-problem/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-proble... I wonder how many other breakthroughs have occurred in a 'hard' problem that was thought to be 'easy'.

hkmurakami 7y ago
There's an urban legend in the Princeton physics department of professors including questions in exams that they don't know the answer to in hopes that some student might crack it. Probably happens from time to time. I never saw it myself since I quickly realized I wouldn't cut it as a physics major there.
- cynicalkane 7y ago
  When I was a math major at U. Chicago, there was at least one professor who did this.
  - closeparen 7y ago
    The math pirate!

dls2016 7y ago

I'm not familiar with Rudnick, but Stein (RIP) and Klainerman are giants in analysis/PDEs. They contributed much to the theories on which they were quizzing him. These are professors at one of the top mathematics institutes in the world.

michaelhoffman 7y ago

The examiners don't need to know the answers to all the questions they ask. Certainly I was asked questions in my qualifying assessment that the committee members later admitted to not knowing the answer to.

peteretep 7y ago

I don't think you need to be "much" better read than someone to pull this off. I think I could lead a much better and smarter programmer than me through -- for example -- monads, and stretch their brain a bit if they hadn't encountered them before, as part of an examination