6 ms·

both his parents are mathematicians and his uncle is a fields medal winner and his grandfather is a mathematician. I'm sure this kid is very intelligent, and i

both his parents are mathematicians and his uncle is a fields medal winner and his grandfather is a mathematician. I'm sure this kid is very intelligent, and i could even believe he solved most of the problem himself but in the end of the article stating "“He did all this without an undergraduate education,” Grantham said." made me roll my eyes.

kevinventullo 4y ago
I mean it sounds like he has already received the equivalent of an undergraduate education.
- strikelaserclaw 4y ago
  thats exactly what i mean, they made it sound like this kid was some average guy who at the age of 15 went to the public library, read books and solved some hard math problem. I bet this kid had an advanced math education and math immersion since he was a toddler.
  - kiba 4y ago
    I wish I was that enterprising at age 15.
  - MikePlacid 4y ago
    Dunno. My granddad was a mathematician and my mother was a mathematician (and my father was a mathematician and a computer scientist, but they divorced). Still the only “math immersion” I got was Perelman books, scattered around our apartment, like Physics for Entertainment and Algebra for Fun: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AYakov+Perelman https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AYakov+Perelm... They are both challenging and entertaining and very simple - on the surface. Some were written in 1913 or so. Each American family can get such an “immersion” for their kids - total is less than $100 I guess. But you also should turn off TV and computers, so probably would not work. Also my daughter took major in mathematics - and I like my parents had no time to immerse her in anything - adults work, children play with fun but impractical problems. I would rather guess that it is some genetic defect in the brain causing a person to prefer playing with abstract problems to booze, smoke and sexual gratification. But I doubt that having such a guess is allowed.
    - BaseballPhysics 4y ago
      > I would rather guess that it is some genetic defect in the brain causing a person to prefer playing with abstract problems to booze, smoke and sexual gratification. But I doubt that having such a guess is allowed. Understandable given it's a comically elitist point of view. Fun fact: Richard Feynman experimented with both LSD and Ketamine, among other things. Shame, imagine how much he could have achieved if he had this "genetic defect" you posit...
      - jamiek88 4y ago
        Yep and Einstein got laaaaaaaid.
      - MikePlacid 4y ago
        Elitist?? I doubt that any American family has a lower standard of living, than a Soviet math post-graduate student, single mother of two. We have no permanent beds only folding ones, I made my studies on a drawing board put over a sewing machine (do you know what sewing machine is for? It’s to repair your old clothing) our apartment was shared by two families, it has no hot water and water itself was de facto rationed. In elementary school - while my mother was on the field trips gathering data for her PhD thesis on methan gas distribution in coal mines of Donbass region I was living with my mathematician granddad. It was a small house shared by three families, no running water and amenities inside. My grandparents grew their own vegetables since you can’t buy vegetables on the market (since there were no market), and even bread was rationed - it was Khrushchev time. Elitist family, indeed. Btw my ancestors were slaves, freed about the same time American slaves were freed. And then communists killed a brother of granddad, and a father of my stepfather, and then national-socialists killed the only brother of my mother, my uncle. My stepfather was never allowed to college, as a son of the “enemy of the people”. If you want to see “elitist” - look at any American house.
        bumby 4y ago
        You might not know the wide variability in American standards of living. I had a SO who did not experience much luxury growing up. They had to run an extension cord from a charitable neighbor to have electricity to do their homework. It wasn't uncommon for them to sleep bundled up in winter clothes together in the living room because they had no heat. I understand television may give a false impression of the American lifestyle, but there's a wide range of experience in a country approaching 400MM people.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    I doubt he didn't spend his own effort. But I also agree that he was probably heavily pushed into math, by some if not all relatives.
  - BaseballPhysics 4y ago
    Even just a strong encouragement to pursue those interests, and a willingness to push him beyond what a typical parent might expect, would go a long way. You see the same thing in, for example, sports dynasties (e.g. Earl Woods coaching Tiger from a very young age).
  - Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
    The article mentions him discussing infinity with his mother at three. It does not try to hide his background. Also, being "privileged" in this way isn't a bad thing (not that you have said otherwsie).
    - paulpauper 4y ago
      we're talking even greater than Terrance Tao level of IQ. No amount of parent's help can instill that kind of talent.
      - Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
        >greater than Terrance Tao level of IQ Can you describe how you arrived at this conclusion? >No amount of parent's help can instill that kind of talent. Totally agree here, but the use of tallent can be shaped by parenting. I think it's fair to say that his upbringing allowed him to develop an interest in mathematics at an earlier age. Not to mention being able to discuss it all the time (making some assumptions here, I can only guess).
        paulpauper 4y ago
        Can you describe how you arrived at this conclusion? Even Terrance Tao didn't publish anything original of such noteworthiness until his 20s. This guy knows as much as he did without even going to college. mind-blowing x10.
  - paulpauper 4y ago
    Think of all the millions of dollars spent on immersion and tutoring by rich parents. How many of their kids produce anything of noteworthiness at any age, let alone so young as he did? This is 99% the product of IQ/talent. It's a huuuge leap to go from merely having an advanced math education to actually solving or proving important stuff. This is mathematician-caliber work, not just someone who took advanced courses at a university or had parent's help.
    - zozbot234 4y ago
      > Think of all the millions of dollars spent on immersion and tutoring by rich parents. The kind of tutoring these provide is nowhere near as immersive as the elite one-on-one education that was historically common in upper-class households.
    - strikelaserclaw 4y ago
      this kid is probably talented as hell but it doesn't mean he didn't have a great mathematical upbringing as well.
    - kevinventullo 4y ago
      Eh, the kind of immersion and tutoring that rich parents can buy doesn’t remotely compare to having two professional mathematicians as parents. The tutors for rich kids are likely to be local grad students who meet with the kids at most a few hours a week; you can’t exactly hire a fields medalist for tutoring. Perhaps more importantly, those rich kids are not getting singular training in math, they’re getting tutored in a gazillion things so they can be “well-rounded”. Also, those kids are not likely to develop the intrinsic motivation to do this stuff because their parents are still the ones instilling values in them. Those values are going to be “go to law school” or “start a business” or “pursue the arts” or some other avatar of “make as much money/social capital as possible”. Those values are likely not going to be “study math and prove theorems because it’s interesting”.
      - _zoltan_ 4y ago
        I bet you could hire a Fields medalist with enough money. Might be a lot, but for sure you can. Everybody has a price.
sriram_malhar 4y ago
Mother (Ayelet), her brother (Elon .. Fields medalist), and their parents (Joram and Naomi) had their work published in the Mathematical Reviews! That family is something else!
nicoburns 4y ago
> He did all this without an undergraduate education I take your point, but I think it serves us to be reminded that formal education isn't the only place that one can learn things.
- Loughla 4y ago
  Yes, that is the point. But it's super cringe-inducing because this teenager benefits, what we can assume is substantially, from literal generations of formal education in his family.
- svnt 4y ago
  Is this some strange attempt to align this article with the “college education isn’t necessary” mantra? Like college education isn’t necessary as long as you have college professors for parents? The absurdist continuation is something like: “I’d like to think if I was motivated enough I could retroactively convert my parents from city bus drivers to tenured professors in a lucrative field, then I wouldn’t need a college education”?
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    It's intended to push back more against "we won't hire anyone without a degree" type sentiments than "you shouldn't bother going to college" type sentiments.

kevinventullo 4y ago

I mean it sounds like he has already received the equivalent of an undergraduate education.

strikelaserclaw 4y ago
thats exactly what i mean, they made it sound like this kid was some average guy who at the age of 15 went to the public library, read books and solved some hard math problem. I bet this kid had an advanced math education and math immersion since he was a toddler.
- kiba 4y ago
  I wish I was that enterprising at age 15.
- MikePlacid 4y ago
  Dunno. My granddad was a mathematician and my mother was a mathematician (and my father was a mathematician and a computer scientist, but they divorced). Still the only “math immersion” I got was Perelman books, scattered around our apartment, like Physics for Entertainment and Algebra for Fun: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AYakov+Perelman https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AYakov+Perelm... They are both challenging and entertaining and very simple - on the surface. Some were written in 1913 or so. Each American family can get such an “immersion” for their kids - total is less than $100 I guess. But you also should turn off TV and computers, so probably would not work. Also my daughter took major in mathematics - and I like my parents had no time to immerse her in anything - adults work, children play with fun but impractical problems. I would rather guess that it is some genetic defect in the brain causing a person to prefer playing with abstract problems to booze, smoke and sexual gratification. But I doubt that having such a guess is allowed.
  - BaseballPhysics 4y ago
    > I would rather guess that it is some genetic defect in the brain causing a person to prefer playing with abstract problems to booze, smoke and sexual gratification. But I doubt that having such a guess is allowed. Understandable given it's a comically elitist point of view. Fun fact: Richard Feynman experimented with both LSD and Ketamine, among other things. Shame, imagine how much he could have achieved if he had this "genetic defect" you posit...
    - jamiek88 4y ago
      Yep and Einstein got laaaaaaaid.
    - MikePlacid 4y ago
      Elitist?? I doubt that any American family has a lower standard of living, than a Soviet math post-graduate student, single mother of two. We have no permanent beds only folding ones, I made my studies on a drawing board put over a sewing machine (do you know what sewing machine is for? It’s to repair your old clothing) our apartment was shared by two families, it has no hot water and water itself was de facto rationed. In elementary school - while my mother was on the field trips gathering data for her PhD thesis on methan gas distribution in coal mines of Donbass region I was living with my mathematician granddad. It was a small house shared by three families, no running water and amenities inside. My grandparents grew their own vegetables since you can’t buy vegetables on the market (since there were no market), and even bread was rationed - it was Khrushchev time. Elitist family, indeed. Btw my ancestors were slaves, freed about the same time American slaves were freed. And then communists killed a brother of granddad, and a father of my stepfather, and then national-socialists killed the only brother of my mother, my uncle. My stepfather was never allowed to college, as a son of the “enemy of the people”. If you want to see “elitist” - look at any American house.
      - bumby 4y ago
        You might not know the wide variability in American standards of living. I had a SO who did not experience much luxury growing up. They had to run an extension cord from a charitable neighbor to have electricity to do their homework. It wasn't uncommon for them to sleep bundled up in winter clothes together in the living room because they had no heat. I understand television may give a false impression of the American lifestyle, but there's a wide range of experience in a country approaching 400MM people.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I doubt he didn't spend his own effort. But I also agree that he was probably heavily pushed into math, by some if not all relatives.
- BaseballPhysics 4y ago
  Even just a strong encouragement to pursue those interests, and a willingness to push him beyond what a typical parent might expect, would go a long way. You see the same thing in, for example, sports dynasties (e.g. Earl Woods coaching Tiger from a very young age).
- Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
  The article mentions him discussing infinity with his mother at three. It does not try to hide his background. Also, being "privileged" in this way isn't a bad thing (not that you have said otherwsie).
  - paulpauper 4y ago
    we're talking even greater than Terrance Tao level of IQ. No amount of parent's help can instill that kind of talent.
    - Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
      >greater than Terrance Tao level of IQ Can you describe how you arrived at this conclusion? >No amount of parent's help can instill that kind of talent. Totally agree here, but the use of tallent can be shaped by parenting. I think it's fair to say that his upbringing allowed him to develop an interest in mathematics at an earlier age. Not to mention being able to discuss it all the time (making some assumptions here, I can only guess).
      - paulpauper 4y ago
        Can you describe how you arrived at this conclusion? Even Terrance Tao didn't publish anything original of such noteworthiness until his 20s. This guy knows as much as he did without even going to college. mind-blowing x10.
- paulpauper 4y ago
  Think of all the millions of dollars spent on immersion and tutoring by rich parents. How many of their kids produce anything of noteworthiness at any age, let alone so young as he did? This is 99% the product of IQ/talent. It's a huuuge leap to go from merely having an advanced math education to actually solving or proving important stuff. This is mathematician-caliber work, not just someone who took advanced courses at a university or had parent's help.
  - zozbot234 4y ago
    > Think of all the millions of dollars spent on immersion and tutoring by rich parents. The kind of tutoring these provide is nowhere near as immersive as the elite one-on-one education that was historically common in upper-class households.
  - strikelaserclaw 4y ago
    this kid is probably talented as hell but it doesn't mean he didn't have a great mathematical upbringing as well.
  - kevinventullo 4y ago
    Eh, the kind of immersion and tutoring that rich parents can buy doesn’t remotely compare to having two professional mathematicians as parents. The tutors for rich kids are likely to be local grad students who meet with the kids at most a few hours a week; you can’t exactly hire a fields medalist for tutoring. Perhaps more importantly, those rich kids are not getting singular training in math, they’re getting tutored in a gazillion things so they can be “well-rounded”. Also, those kids are not likely to develop the intrinsic motivation to do this stuff because their parents are still the ones instilling values in them. Those values are going to be “go to law school” or “start a business” or “pursue the arts” or some other avatar of “make as much money/social capital as possible”. Those values are likely not going to be “study math and prove theorems because it’s interesting”.
    - _zoltan_ 4y ago
      I bet you could hire a Fields medalist with enough money. Might be a lot, but for sure you can. Everybody has a price.

sriram_malhar 4y ago

Mother (Ayelet), her brother (Elon .. Fields medalist), and their parents (Joram and Naomi) had their work published in the Mathematical Reviews! That family is something else!

nicoburns 4y ago

> He did all this without an undergraduate education I take your point, but I think it serves us to be reminded that formal education isn't the only place that one can learn things.

Loughla 4y ago
Yes, that is the point. But it's super cringe-inducing because this teenager benefits, what we can assume is substantially, from literal generations of formal education in his family.
svnt 4y ago
Is this some strange attempt to align this article with the “college education isn’t necessary” mantra? Like college education isn’t necessary as long as you have college professors for parents? The absurdist continuation is something like: “I’d like to think if I was motivated enough I could retroactively convert my parents from city bus drivers to tenured professors in a lucrative field, then I wouldn’t need a college education”?
- nicoburns 4y ago
  It's intended to push back more against "we won't hire anyone without a degree" type sentiments than "you shouldn't bother going to college" type sentiments.