13 ms·

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 har

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.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - selimthegrim 4y ago
      Come to New Orleans and after I am done giving you tour of some neighborhoods let's see what you say.
- bumby 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 They may not be as mutually exclusive as you think. I remember reading some research years ago that investigated the positive correlation between alcohol abuse and IQ. Their theory was that high IQ personalities seek novelty and that can manifest in chasing novel mental states.
  - MikePlacid 4y ago
    That may be true, but my “living experience” is causing me to doubt it, heavily. I’ve seen a lot of guys - most of them more gifted than me in math (I actually switched to computer science after 2 years in university cause I fell in love with computers but math seemed too abstract to me) - so I’ve seen both brains and lives of these bright guys completely destroyed by alcohol abuse, completely destroyed, not an easy thing to watch.
    - deleted 4y ago
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- deleted 4y ago
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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.

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.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - selimthegrim 4y ago
    Come to New Orleans and after I am done giving you tour of some neighborhoods let's see what you say.
bumby 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 They may not be as mutually exclusive as you think. I remember reading some research years ago that investigated the positive correlation between alcohol abuse and IQ. Their theory was that high IQ personalities seek novelty and that can manifest in chasing novel mental states.
- MikePlacid 4y ago
  That may be true, but my “living experience” is causing me to doubt it, heavily. I’ve seen a lot of guys - most of them more gifted than me in math (I actually switched to computer science after 2 years in university cause I fell in love with computers but math seemed too abstract to me) - so I’ve seen both brains and lives of these bright guys completely destroyed by alcohol abuse, completely destroyed, not an easy thing to watch.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

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.