4 ms·

> Imagine what he would have done if he had lived to 40? Sorry, can't. Marriage alone is a major productivity killer, then there are also kids and general life

> Imagine what he would have done if he had lived to 40? Sorry, can't. Marriage alone is a major productivity killer, then there are also kids and general life problems. There was a study that basically built a histogram of mathematicians' (?) productivity vs age. The peak was around 25 years old, followed by a very steep decline.

tokenadult 15y ago
Marriage alone is a major productivity killer, then there are also kids and general life problems. Leonhard Euler managed to be a productive mathematician for decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler He had children and grandchildren, and that didn't stop him from working on mathematics even in their presence. Blindness didn't stop him either.
- huhtenberg 15y ago
  Sure, but that's a sample of one.
  - mahmud 15y ago
    The "rock stars" of mathematics are all mostly romanticized youth, but its bedrock is mostly gray-matter tucked under grayer hair.
  - ColinWright 15y ago
    Bela Bollobas, Tim Gowers, Ron Graham, John H Conway, Elwyn Berlekamp, Richard Guy, Reinhard Diestel, Alan Baker. The problem is that you only hear about the truly eccentric. Ordinary people who are also extraordinary mathematicians never get romanticised, so you won't have heard of them. I've just picked a few there from my own personal acquaintance.
showerst 15y ago
There's been a little interesting work that suggests that there are different archetypes among the extremely creative that roughly correspond to 'early peakers' and 'late peakers'. I just skimmed this wired article but it seems like a good summary (note the '06 date though) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html
- kghose 15y ago
  Perhaps 'early' and 'late' are not as important as the fact that there is a peak - people don't seem to be famous/productive in a sustained way. The 'early' and 'late' is probably continuous, you can peak anytime, but you tend not to hold it.
  - eric-hu 15y ago
    Leonhard Euler: Born: 1707 completes masters in philosophy: 1723 lost vision in right eye: 1735 Solved 7 bridges problem: 1736 publish Introductio in analysin infinitorum, volume 1: 1748 [2] Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory: 1750 Euler's Formula (geometry): 1750 [1] publish Institutiones calculi differentialis: 1755 [2] near total blindness: 1766 publish Theoria motuum lunae: 1768 [1] http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/euler/ http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/euler/ [2] http://eulerarchive.maa.org/historica/euler-timeline.html http://eulerarchive.maa.org/historica/euler-timeline.html There's plenty more that's left out. After his near-total blindness, he averaged publishing one mathematical paper per week in 1775. To assume you or I are like Euler is hubris. To assume otherwise is doing a disservice to humanity.
Turing_Machine 15y ago
That was formerly true in other sciences as well, but things have been changing: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/scientific_productivity_increases.aspx http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/scien... I don't know if mathematics has been following the same trend.

tokenadult 15y ago

Marriage alone is a major productivity killer, then there are also kids and general life problems. Leonhard Euler managed to be a productive mathematician for decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler He had children and grandchildren, and that didn't stop him from working on mathematics even in their presence. Blindness didn't stop him either.

huhtenberg 15y ago
Sure, but that's a sample of one.
- mahmud 15y ago
  The "rock stars" of mathematics are all mostly romanticized youth, but its bedrock is mostly gray-matter tucked under grayer hair.
- ColinWright 15y ago
  Bela Bollobas, Tim Gowers, Ron Graham, John H Conway, Elwyn Berlekamp, Richard Guy, Reinhard Diestel, Alan Baker. The problem is that you only hear about the truly eccentric. Ordinary people who are also extraordinary mathematicians never get romanticised, so you won't have heard of them. I've just picked a few there from my own personal acquaintance.

showerst 15y ago

There's been a little interesting work that suggests that there are different archetypes among the extremely creative that roughly correspond to 'early peakers' and 'late peakers'. I just skimmed this wired article but it seems like a good summary (note the '06 date though) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html

kghose 15y ago
Perhaps 'early' and 'late' are not as important as the fact that there is a peak - people don't seem to be famous/productive in a sustained way. The 'early' and 'late' is probably continuous, you can peak anytime, but you tend not to hold it.
- eric-hu 15y ago
  Leonhard Euler: Born: 1707 completes masters in philosophy: 1723 lost vision in right eye: 1735 Solved 7 bridges problem: 1736 publish Introductio in analysin infinitorum, volume 1: 1748 [2] Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory: 1750 Euler's Formula (geometry): 1750 [1] publish Institutiones calculi differentialis: 1755 [2] near total blindness: 1766 publish Theoria motuum lunae: 1768 [1] http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/euler/ http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/euler/ [2] http://eulerarchive.maa.org/historica/euler-timeline.html http://eulerarchive.maa.org/historica/euler-timeline.html There's plenty more that's left out. After his near-total blindness, he averaged publishing one mathematical paper per week in 1775. To assume you or I are like Euler is hubris. To assume otherwise is doing a disservice to humanity.

Turing_Machine 15y ago

That was formerly true in other sciences as well, but things have been changing: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/scientific_productivity_increases.aspx http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/scien... I don't know if mathematics has been following the same trend.