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I feel that Terrence Tao doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles but he's one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league. M

I feel that Terrence Tao doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles but he's one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league. Maybe it's just that maths doesn't capture the public's imagination as it's incomprehensible to people not involved with the field.

evolve2k 4y ago
We’ll this article is maybe a good case in point. Surely as they were talking of tiled geometry there could have been space for a few visual examples, even if they hit a practical limit and said ‘It’s theoretical from here but this gives the idea’.
- klyrs 4y ago
  I was too. I mean, they show the aperiodic Penrose tiles, which is nice because that's approachable. But the punchline of the story quashes the hope of a nice illustration of the result: the proof works in 2^(100^100)-dimensional space. We always joke that one must only visualize n-space and set n to 2^(100^100)... but that isn't much of a help. It really is a nasty geometry.
voxl 4y ago
Terrence Tao is just another human, who had a lot of investment at a young age from world renowned mathematicians. The guy also isn't a huge fan of "genius"-type hype around his work. Don't let the existence of someone be the excuse you use to tell yourself you couldn't also do something cool or great.
- thereare5lights 4y ago
  I'd bet any amount of money you want that you could just do the same thing with any arbitrary human and create a mathematician of his caliber. The idea that any kid who gets a lot of investment at a young age from world renowned mathematicians will be another Terrence Tao or even 10% of Tao is not plausible. He may not like the genius label, but in his case, it is absolutely true.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - pgayed 4y ago
    Commenter doesn't say you would produce another Terrence Tao: > Don't let the existence of someone be the excuse you use to tell yourself you couldn't also do something cool or great.
    - robinhouston 4y ago
      Meta: I’m fascinated by the way that a string of five comments, by different users, have all copied the misspelling of Terence Tao’s name from the original comment by isaacfrond.
      - pyinstallwoes 4y ago
        Is that something GPT would do?
        Ygg2 4y ago
        Not really. Terrence and Terence are too visually similar and tbh I've seen more former than latter.
      - ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
        I hadn't realised I'd misspelled his name until I saw your comment. For some reason, it looks better with two 'r's.
      - supernewton 4y ago
        It's not too weird -- "Terry" is always spelled with two r's, and yes English is weird but if you didn't have any more specific knowledge you'd also assume the name Terry is derived from is also always spelled with two r's.
    - thereare5lights 4y ago
      Context matters. Commenter was replying to someone who said > I feel that Terrence Tao doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles but he's one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league. and I highlight > one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league.
- ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
  I'd say that Terence got the investment from world renowned mathematicians because he was unusually gifted even at such a young age. It appears that some people are innately adept at mathematical thinking but as you say, people can still learn and contribute even when they don't have such a spectacular start.
_0ffh 4y ago
> doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles I don't know. I'm definitely not "maths circles" and I don't know a whole lot of mathematicians by name. Those I do know are either personal acquaintances or people I consider to be more or less famous (people like Gauss, Fermat, Laplace, Hilbert, von Neumann, or Perelman). I definitely know Tao's name. He's not an acquaintances of mine, so I reason he must be more or less famous. =)
- ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
  Well, I wouldn't include myself in 'maths circles' either, but I enjoy reading popularised maths articles and occasional maths videos (e.g. 3Blue1Brown, Mathologer). It just seems far more niche than other topics - I wonder how many people are familiar with Perelman as well.
  - _0ffh 4y ago
    Yes, Perelman was by far the hardest to come up with, but I really wanted at least one contemporary name in there.

evolve2k 4y ago

We’ll this article is maybe a good case in point. Surely as they were talking of tiled geometry there could have been space for a few visual examples, even if they hit a practical limit and said ‘It’s theoretical from here but this gives the idea’.

klyrs 4y ago
I was too. I mean, they show the aperiodic Penrose tiles, which is nice because that's approachable. But the punchline of the story quashes the hope of a nice illustration of the result: the proof works in 2^(100^100)-dimensional space. We always joke that one must only visualize n-space and set n to 2^(100^100)... but that isn't much of a help. It really is a nasty geometry.

voxl 4y ago

Terrence Tao is just another human, who had a lot of investment at a young age from world renowned mathematicians. The guy also isn't a huge fan of "genius"-type hype around his work. Don't let the existence of someone be the excuse you use to tell yourself you couldn't also do something cool or great.

thereare5lights 4y ago
I'd bet any amount of money you want that you could just do the same thing with any arbitrary human and create a mathematician of his caliber. The idea that any kid who gets a lot of investment at a young age from world renowned mathematicians will be another Terrence Tao or even 10% of Tao is not plausible. He may not like the genius label, but in his case, it is absolutely true.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- pgayed 4y ago
  Commenter doesn't say you would produce another Terrence Tao: > Don't let the existence of someone be the excuse you use to tell yourself you couldn't also do something cool or great.
  - robinhouston 4y ago
    Meta: I’m fascinated by the way that a string of five comments, by different users, have all copied the misspelling of Terence Tao’s name from the original comment by isaacfrond.
    - pyinstallwoes 4y ago
      Is that something GPT would do?
      - Ygg2 4y ago
        Not really. Terrence and Terence are too visually similar and tbh I've seen more former than latter.
    - ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
      I hadn't realised I'd misspelled his name until I saw your comment. For some reason, it looks better with two 'r's.
    - supernewton 4y ago
      It's not too weird -- "Terry" is always spelled with two r's, and yes English is weird but if you didn't have any more specific knowledge you'd also assume the name Terry is derived from is also always spelled with two r's.
  - thereare5lights 4y ago
    Context matters. Commenter was replying to someone who said > I feel that Terrence Tao doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles but he's one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league. and I highlight > one of those people who just seem to be in a totally different league.
ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
I'd say that Terence got the investment from world renowned mathematicians because he was unusually gifted even at such a young age. It appears that some people are innately adept at mathematical thinking but as you say, people can still learn and contribute even when they don't have such a spectacular start.

_0ffh 4y ago

> doesn't get much recognition outside of maths circles I don't know. I'm definitely not "maths circles" and I don't know a whole lot of mathematicians by name. Those I do know are either personal acquaintances or people I consider to be more or less famous (people like Gauss, Fermat, Laplace, Hilbert, von Neumann, or Perelman). I definitely know Tao's name. He's not an acquaintances of mine, so I reason he must be more or less famous. =)

ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
Well, I wouldn't include myself in 'maths circles' either, but I enjoy reading popularised maths articles and occasional maths videos (e.g. 3Blue1Brown, Mathologer). It just seems far more niche than other topics - I wonder how many people are familiar with Perelman as well.
- _0ffh 4y ago
  Yes, Perelman was by far the hardest to come up with, but I really wanted at least one contemporary name in there.