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On a similar note, how should one feel when reading/ learning about people like this? I mean, on one hand, it's rather inspiring to read about the amazing thin

by NhanH 12y ago

On a similar note, how should one feel when reading/ learning about people like this? I mean, on one hand, it's rather inspiring to read about the amazing thing that another human is achieving. On the other hand, I can't help but feel ... helplessness, like whatever I do, it doesn't really matter (add on with the guilt of squandering my time, and wondering if I could ever have been that good). When I was younger and have less (or no) ambitions, it was easy to brush off everytime a story like this comes up: well, they're genius, and ... so what? But interestingly, since I've learned that I might be able to do more than I thought I could, everytime I read a story like this, I just feel extremely mediocre, even pathetic of myself.

heurist 12y ago
I've been dealing with this kind of existential anxiety myself lately. Nothing anyone does matters on a universal scale, and I realized that was only painful because I had expectations for myself that were incongruent with reality. It's okay to not be a genius or contribute something significant, you only need to look for happiness and stability, which could be fading into obscurity and enjoying your time with friends and family. Personally, the times when I feel most relaxed are the times when I am most creative and do some of my best work anyway.
WhitneyLand 12y ago
Another perspective is that this type of genius is a narrow measure of intelligence and an even narrower predictor of "success". In leadership for example, do you think CEOs have the highest IQs in the company? How about Churchill, King, Lincoln? No doubt very smart people but relied just as much on other abilities. What about the arts? How many of your favorite musicians or comedians are great at math? Arguably these abilities are orthogonal to what Tao can do, yet are clearly a form of genius. The innateness/validity of EI is not yet settled but emotional intelligence enables people in ways that just are not possible with only pure problem solving prowess. How long would most math PhDs last as politicians, if they were somehow motivated to do so? Speaking of motivation, how many IQ points past our own does someone of average ambition have to reach before we can't just out work them? Quite a few in my experience.
aswanson 12y ago
You need to ask the philosophical question of how you determine your self-worth. Is it discovering something new, learning...or is it more important that people, the large majority of whom you will never meet, consider you to be brilliant? Is a really a search for knowledge that you are undertaking, or a search for adulation from others. If it's the former, there is more than enough to learn for a number of lifetimes before advancing any branch of mathematics. If it is the latter, I can only pity you, it's a recipe for a sad life.

by NhanH 12y ago

heurist 12y ago

I've been dealing with this kind of existential anxiety myself lately. Nothing anyone does matters on a universal scale, and I realized that was only painful because I had expectations for myself that were incongruent with reality. It's okay to not be a genius or contribute something significant, you only need to look for happiness and stability, which could be fading into obscurity and enjoying your time with friends and family. Personally, the times when I feel most relaxed are the times when I am most creative and do some of my best work anyway.

WhitneyLand 12y ago

Another perspective is that this type of genius is a narrow measure of intelligence and an even narrower predictor of "success". In leadership for example, do you think CEOs have the highest IQs in the company? How about Churchill, King, Lincoln? No doubt very smart people but relied just as much on other abilities. What about the arts? How many of your favorite musicians or comedians are great at math? Arguably these abilities are orthogonal to what Tao can do, yet are clearly a form of genius. The innateness/validity of EI is not yet settled but emotional intelligence enables people in ways that just are not possible with only pure problem solving prowess. How long would most math PhDs last as politicians, if they were somehow motivated to do so? Speaking of motivation, how many IQ points past our own does someone of average ambition have to reach before we can't just out work them? Quite a few in my experience.

aswanson 12y ago

You need to ask the philosophical question of how you determine your self-worth. Is it discovering something new, learning...or is it more important that people, the large majority of whom you will never meet, consider you to be brilliant? Is a really a search for knowledge that you are undertaking, or a search for adulation from others. If it's the former, there is more than enough to learn for a number of lifetimes before advancing any branch of mathematics. If it is the latter, I can only pity you, it's a recipe for a sad life.