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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 23 KB, 395x273, tao.395.1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7236004 No.7236004 [Reply] [Original]

What's the point of trying to contribute to science or maths if Terence Tao or any of the other geniuses could look at what you're doing, start working on your field, and make huge advances that supersede yours, and do this within weeks of starting, in comparison with your years of work?

You don't have to start contemplating the end of the universe or your eventual death before you can think about your worthlessness - the more grounded reason is right there in picrelated.

>> No.7236010

Should probably just give up living altogether, considering there is someone out there, somewhere, that can do anything you do better than you can. Including living.

10/10 off yourself on live cam, Opie.

>> No.7236017

>>7236004
accept that intelligence is genetic and stop trying to be more than what your genes are. we will never be tao. fine. we can lick toilets

>> No.7236025

>>7236017
>we will never be tao
but I am an aryan white man, I belong to the great nordic race. I will never aknowledge a chinaman as superior to me in any way, he must be cheating somehow tbh

>> No.7236067
File: 649 KB, 707x777, 1411536310214.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7236067

>>7236004
Tao already spent more time doing mathematics you ever will in your life. It is only natural that he can do way more than you. If you want to make more meaningful discoveries then stop venting on 4chan and become an outcast (more than you already are), dedicate your entire life to researching and studying mathematics, in-depth, even about fields that are not related at all to your field, so that you develop actual mathematical intuition, basically become autism incarnate and strive to be better than everyone else.

It's not magic, it's not in your genes; the only advantage that Tao has is that he was forced to do mathematics when he was a kid. You can no longer throw your childhood away, but you can still throw the rest of your life away and become close to what Tao is now. If you think it's worth it to abdicate the life you know only to be able to make "meaningful" discoveries in mathematics that are actually only meaningful to mathematicians themselves, and if you think that's what "having a worth" is, then go for it fam.

>> No.7236086

>>7236067
This is wrong, but still somewhat insightful; while ot can't be denied that Tao has more genetic potential for math than pretty much everyone else, it's also true that Tao wouldn't be the man he is of he hadn't dedicated hos life to the study of math. Whether you're above average or legendary in terms of IQ, it doesn't mean shit unless you make the effort to learn and to use what you've learned.

>> No.7236115
File: 95 KB, 653x490, IMG_7718 copy.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7236115

>>7236086
Agreed fam. Even though terry was like by definition prodigiously smart. I'm kind of doing what >>7236067 suggested rn - cocoon mode at grad school trying to shove as much math as possible into my flabby brain. My argument: we're all gonna die, so we might as well blaze, do da maths, and try to write some meaningful lits in our spare time.

Pic related, it's out of this based book by alon and spencer. The argument generalizes: /s/math/lits/g and it checks out.

Also while we're comparing chinamen, terry > tao, wish the other chinaman would go hang himself in taipei.

>> No.7236136

>>7236004

Well I'm not nearly as ugly as him so I feel fine

Lots of great math geniuses start in high school or college anyways, really all you need is one strong discovery and having a genius but not Tao brain will work for that, if you sprinkle luck on top

Personally I don't really care much about what human calculators do so you guys wallow about not solving Fermat's last theorum first while I read poetry

>> No.7236139
File: 33 KB, 361x333, 1438083718058.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7236139

>>7236025

>I will never aknowledge a chinaman as superior to me in any way, he must be cheating somehow tbh

he is aussie you cunt he was born in australia

come to terms with how great we are already you fukken gay cunt

>> No.7236144

>>7236139
Are you this stupid? The anon you're responding to was clearly being sarcastic.

>> No.7236160

>>7236115
>might as well blaze
Weed makes you stupid in the long run. You are stupid enough as it is. "Blazing" is counterproductive to your goal of making significant contributions to mathematics.

>> No.7236161

>>7236115

>a mathematical proof is *more real* than food

Sounds like a fucking moran tbh fam

>> No.7236162
File: 6 KB, 184x184, u wot.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7236162

>>7236144

>responding to an obvious shitpost with this and not seeing the irony

you fukken dumb cunt

>> No.7236176

>>7236160
probably right bruh

it's p fun though, and helps me rationalize what i'm doing

am i just rationalizing my enjoyment of the ganj?

>> No.7236238

There are geniuses in all fields, don't be stupid or insecure. Do your thang OP.

>> No.7236250

>>7236115
>Even though terry was like by definition prodigiously smart.
Yeah, because his father was a specialist in autism and educating gifted children, and his mother had a degree in physics and mathematics. There is no way the kid wouldn't grow to become a genius mathematician as soon as he showed the slightest interest in mathematics.

Also, see
>>7236161

>> No.7236285

>>7236004
This is why I took up computer programming, I can tell the computer how to think, and it will think for as long as I tell it to with the rules I told it.
>tfw when Watson is FOSS and all of my work is for not

>> No.7236321

>>7236250
kek

>inb4 you argue that this isn't raw materialism
enjoy your inevitable death, bruh

>> No.7236326

Tao lin's brother sure is the brains of the family.

>> No.7236333

>>7236004
GODDAMN you don't even fucking do math probably but you're still wasting your time imagining some asian dork cucking you at it
jesus christ you need to fix your attitude

>> No.7236337

>>7236321
I find it comforting that someday it all comes to an end. I'm sorry for your troubles coping with death, not sure what you've been through but I hope you sort it out eventually.

>> No.7236340

>>7236285
>Implying Carmack couldn't do the same.

>> No.7236518

>>7236067
Sometimes I fantasize about doing something like this.

Dropping out of college, locking myself in a library and poring over books without end, just wake up at five study for sixteen hours and go back to sleep.

I mean, just imagine those mental gains? The only thing that holds me back is how ridiculously stupid the entire plan sounds.

>> No.7236640

He is not that ugly

.>>7236136

>> No.7236718

>>7236518
It is stupid indeed, at least in my opinion. My point was that it was possible to do it, what OP wanted: contribute to science and mathematics, do some more advanced research and find non-trivial results, solve Millennium-caliber problems, overall go (close to) toe-to-toe with Terrence Tao, for instance.

But to be able to do that, you'll have to sacrifice everything else that you care about and dedicate yourself pretty much fully to mathematics. It's moronic, there's more to life than just contributing to the sciences, in hopes that you will be remembered, that your work will remain even after you die. Actually taking it easy and enjoying life however you please, instead of trying so hard to make a difference or contribution to the academia, doesn't make you a worthless existence. But, again, that's just me.

>> No.7236737

>>7236718
> Actually taking it easy and enjoying life however you please, instead of trying so hard to make a difference or contribution to the academia, doesn't make you a worthless existence

fucking how
do you have a brain?

>> No.7236759

>>7236737
Not that guy, but academia is not the ultimate arbiter of value and contribution. Just think of all the great art the academy had no hand in. There are also innovations made very day by private enterprise. All of this assumes, of course, that you have to add to the store of human knowledge to not be worthless, which I wouldn't agree with. Unless you're a total basement-dweller, you interact with loads of people every day, and it takes some real fucking up to make all those interactions mean nothing or mean something negative to all those people.

>> No.7236784

Who cares? Most of us will never be great. You can still live the best you can with what you're given. There is no reason to give up living a dignified life just because you won't be the best at something. You are still going to influence however few people in however small a way. No one is meaningless.

>> No.7236797

>>7236004
If you don't learn anything and commit yourself to being the best, you'll never get to see how far you go anyway. You'll always wonder if you could actually be the next Tao, Hawking or whoever and never will even contribute anything to the field. You have to realize that these men also heavily rely on the works of other men to even get to where they are and without even trying to contribute you're just being a whiny bitch that will never have purpose and will always wonder what could have been.

>> No.7236831

>>7236784
>No one is meaningless.
Speak for yourself

>> No.7237003
File: 210 KB, 2197x1463, farage smug.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7237003

>>7236797
>>7236797
>You'll always wonder if you could actually be the next Tao

lol

>Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university level mathematics courses at the age of 9


more generally

>The world of mathematics and theoretical physics is hierarchical. That was my first exposure to it. There's a limit beyond which one cannot progress. The differences between the limiting abilities of those on successively higher steps of the pyramid are enormous. I have not seen described anywhere the shock a talented man experiences when he finds, late in his academic life, that there are others enormously more talented than he. I have personally seen more tears shed by grown men and women over this discovery than I would have believed possible. Most of those men and women shift to fields where they can compete on more equal terms. - Luis Alvarez

>> No.7237639

>>7236115
>Now the integers -- that's reality.
this hurts to read

>> No.7237710

so is this guy's work going to help make android waifus or is he just tossing more pebbles into the endless bucket of autistic discoveries in pure mathematics

>> No.7237921

>>7236004
I opened the very same thread on >>>/sci/.

Why?

>> No.7238104
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7238104

I want to get started again on mathematics, since I haven't used them at all in a couple of years and I tried doing some math stuff recently and shat the bed. I don't want this to happen again so...
What are some nice intro books for maths?

>> No.7238107

>>7236640

he's also not that attractive, and his wife is ugly

>> No.7238125

>>7238107

I want to say that I'm also not saying this as sour grapes. I'm actually glad I'm not a super math chinese kid (or now, man.) I just don't see why I would ever want to dedicate my life to discovering the penis length of 11 dimensional topologically-homosexual hyperknots. And I can have more than just the true bottom of the barrel as a wife one day.

>> No.7238143

>>7238104
How to prove it by Daniel Velleman. Then read a rigorous introductory book to whatever strikes your fancy. A Book of Abstract Algebra by Charles Pinter is a good introduction to algebra. Read Apostol or Spivak if you want to get into analysis.

>> No.7238178
File: 187 KB, 346x406, monk.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
7238178

>>7238143
thanks

>> No.7238784

>>7238125
clearly the sublime beauty of mathematical truth and necessity is not for mere minds like yours

now go play minecraft like the mong you are

>> No.7238981

>>7238104
might be worth getting caught up/solidyfing yr basics first then, try "understanding pure mathematics" by Sadler and Thorning then move on to how2 prove it as the other anon said, after that dover publish some neat textbooks on specific areas.

>> No.7239086

I wany to become The Reciever of Memory