Math Prodigy Terence Tao, UCLA

Terence Tao was a seven year-old high school student when he began taking calculus classes. By age 20 he had received a Ph.D. from Princeton and joined the UCLA faculty. In 2006 he won the Fields Medal in Mathematics and a MacArthur "genius" grant. Watch Tao talk about how he approaches problem-solving.

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[EisEisBaby]

the bruce lee of mathematics

[HitMeQuick]

0.57 He might be clever, sure, but he has to use one of those things my dog wears after an operation to stop him scratching his face.

[Brockhad]

Oh, shocking, an asian guy who's good at math! The only number he doesn't get is a girls number!

[joycehou8751]

COOL!!!

[AmadeusWinters]

@HumaneAnon Thats maybe your interpretation of it;however, it seems to just expose an insecurity about yourself.Perhaps the makers just wanted to have some background music for thefilm. Don't think to deeply about it.

AmadeusWinters 1 sec ago

[woodydrn2]

music is quite annoying ....

[astroboomboy]

Damn, sitting there with Erdös at 0:46!

[WiggyWittgenstein]

@AjGuitarist It's more the culture. When Carl Sagan taught at Cornell, he noted that the caucasian students would be happy with a fair grade, but all of the Asian students wanted to excel, and be the best in the class. Anglo-American culture is largely suspicious of intelligence, and the stereotypes of nerd are pejorative, but in most Asian cultures, and Jewish communities, intellectual prowess is seen as a gift and encouraged. That's why America's greatest asset in science is the H1B visa.

[Kungemil1]

@AjGuitarist

It has nothing to do with race. It is retarded that people think that race has anything to do with it when talking about Asians being smart? Because when you try to explain why Africa is poor no one ever accepts race.

But in Asia it is still popular to be smart and the parents push them really hard. The smartest people were before Europeans, not because we are white, but because being smart and working hard was considered honorable and something you'd do. That's not the case anymor

[AjGuitarist]

I learned about Tao from a Business Insider article.

Top top 3 living "smartest people" were all Asian, 3.) Kim Ung-Yong (Korean) 2.) Christopher Hirata (half Japanese) 1.) Terence Tao (Chinese).

What the hell are Asian parents feeding their newborns!?

[JackF1116]

@HumaneAnon I think it is because classical composers were considered geniuses of their time. Albeit, classical music contains specifically musical genius, but still.