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A comment on Terry Tao about his own childhood as child prodigy (1985, at ten). Parent comment

Re:Terry Tao about his own childhood as child prodigy (1985,... by gjm11 on Monday September 21, 2009 @04:46AM (#834235)
Huh? I don't think I've ever known him brag about his intelligence (note: I don't know him personally, but I do read his blog), and he has about as much intelligence to brag about as any person alive. And he applies it all the time; that's his job, and he is very very good at it.

Your comments look like they're meant as a criticism of Tao, but I don't see how to apply any of them to anything about him. Would you like to clarify?

(Note: the document linked from here does include the word "intelligent" -- in some such phrase as "I may be considered an intelligent child". It may be worth bearing in mind that at this point he was a 10-year-old who had been asked, on account of his prodigious mathematical skills, to talk to a bunch of very eminent adults. It may also be worth bearing in mind that he immediately goes on to say something like "but I still have a whole lot to learn before I have any hope of being as wise as any of you in this room".)

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Re:Terry Tao about his own childhood as child prodigy (1985,... by zackattack on Monday September 21, 2009 @12:56PM (#834970)
They aren't a criticism of Tao. It was a tangent. I'm saying that intelligence that can only be applied to a few esoteric fields is overrated. I thought a thread about child prodigies would be a good opportunity to make that comment.
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