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That was surprisingly good. Although, I think it paints with too fine a brush sometimes (narrowing its conclusions to the Ivy Leagues). For example, I've defi
by smanek 18y ago
That was surprisingly good.
Although, I think it paints with too fine a brush sometimes (narrowing its conclusions to the Ivy Leagues).
For example, I've definitely noticed a loss of solitude and way too much over specialization too early. A lot of the people I know in Ivy League schools began competing and winning in contests in their chosen field by middle school. I understand that a University would rather admit a USAMO or Intel Science Fair Winner - but the competition there is so intense it forces students aiming high to begin specializing before they're even teenagers.
Frankly I've taken more math courses than anyone ever should, and there are still some USAMO problems that I couldn't solve given unlimited time. Take a look: http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/USAMO-IMO/q-usamo/-pdf/usamo2008.pdf http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/USAMO-IMO/q-... And they expect 16 year olds to do that!
Hell, I've personally seen a few high school science fair projects that are essentially graduate level work involving genetic engineering and monte carlo simulations.
Although, to be fair, a lot of these kids also try to see the bigger picture and recognize the role of their formal education (they are usually the ones who end up as quants or traders ;-)).
- cperciva 18y agoUSAMO problems... Take a look Ok, it's wildly unfair for a Putnam fellow to be looking at these, but since you asked... I think I can see how to solve problem 6, but I'd have to take a few minutes to make sure that my solution works. The other 5 problems took me about 30 seconds each. Hell, I've personally seen a few high school science fair projects that are essentially graduate level work involving genetic engineering and monte carlo simulations. Funny, I was about to say that I've seen far too many graduate students doing work which is essentially high school science fair material.
- smanek 18y ago<irony> wow ... that just makes me feel bad about myself. </irony> Even so, that's very impressive. After looking through, I only see likely solutions to 3 of the 6, and I would still have a fair amount of work to even verify those 3. goes and mopes in the corner
- gambling8nt 18y agoThe ability to do these sorts of competitions is a learned skill like any other. Certainly, it is a learned skill that has some relation to research ability within mathematics, but neither tests, nor grades, nor classes are the be-all or end-all of skill measurement tools. If you can solve half the questions, you have enough logical ability to accomplish anything short of beating cperciva at a math competition. The true mark of skill is to go use that to create something new--anything else is just practice.
- timr 18y agoSomeone needed to say this. Glorifying the Putnam is a perfect example of what the author of the essay was discussing as a "false sense of self-worth" that's based in numeric metrics. The world is filled with brilliant, respected people who never did well on a math test.
- vlad 18y agoI can't agree that creating something new is more special than being one of the best in chess, math, tennis, or another ranked field.
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- Alex3917 18y agoThe easy way to solve any math problem: Reformat it to look like a Google problem set, and then tack it to the corkboards in the hallway.