/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11109029
It's the single most powerful thing a person can do for their mind besides learning a native language. Whenever you spend 1000 hours, 15000 hours, solving really, really hard problems, any problem anyone gives you in any normal day setting just becomes a walk in the park.

>>11109029
>>11109034
Whenever you go to high intellectual fields it won't be the lack of knowledge that prevents you from progressing: What will stop you it's that the subjects require such raw mental capacity and problem solving ability they become impenetrable unless you have absolutely insane problem solving abilities.

The two best mathematicians currently living both got perfect scores on the Putnam mathematics competition and trained in math contests from a young age. Not to mention all the Nobel prize winners who got into math contests. Cause when you go into high intellectual fields, what will hold you back isn't cause you didn't study enough. What will hold you back indefinitely is cause the subject requires such raw mental capacity and problem solving abilities that you can't understand it no matter how many hours you put into it.

>>11109029
Big red pill incoming here: It doesn't help improve anything. It helps top corporations filter through the garbage and find the few who were born with the talent.

>>11109065
This doesn't seem rational at all.
How does solving incredibly hard questions not improve the processes used to solve those questions?
However, I do agree that is the purpose of the competitions.

>>11109074
How do you know that Tao wasn't just born with the talent and destiny to get those medals? Did he really become better at it? Wasn't he just destined?

Before you answer, consider this. If you say no, why is it EXTREMELY difficult to train a team to get a perfect score. If anyone can do it, just train a kid to get a perfect score always. After all, it is just time and money. And the people who train the kids in China/US/etc. already have infinite money and virtually infinite time.

>>11109080
I agree that it comes down to innate talent at the highest levels since I believe that each person has a genetic potential. I was simply stating that doing those problems will improve your cognitive processes. I don't think a guy named joe that works at walmart and solves putnam problems in his free time will become the next tao eventually.

>>11109095
>I was simply stating that doing those problems will improve your cognitive processes.

And my point is that there is nothing to improve. You will solve the problems that your mental capacity allows you to solve, and have to read a solution on artofproblemsolving written by a 3 year old chinese child for the problems that exceed your mental capacity.

>>11109097
Okay can you explain your reasoning so I can better understand your justification for your proposition?

>>11109104
Yes. My explanation would exceed your mental capacity so I shall reserve it.

>>11109107
Or you are just a fucking brainlet

Reminder for a certain someone that Grigori Perelman was part of a group of Russian schoolboys being educated in mathematical olympiads from a young age, whose teacher had incredibly high standards for teaching and produced countless gold medalists.

Reminder that almost every gold medalists for a long time had some connection back to his teaching methods or was taught by someone whom he taught.

>>11109381
Reminder that Grigori Perelman was never considered the best student in this group of school

>>11109107
Reminder that it requires substantially more information to construct a human brain than is contained within DNA, meaning some of it must be randomly generated and developed by the environment