all say "diligence can make up for one's weakness", but some things are innate, and we have to admit that we may have lost on the starting line of IQ.
Einstein's IQ is 160, Hawking's IQ is 161, and his IQ is as high as 230, he is the highest IQ person in the world. He is a Chinese mathematician 陶哲轩 .
And every step in Tao Zexuan's growth experience, it is also constantly confirming his reputation as a genius. ：
Participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad at the age of 10, 11, and 12, and won bronze, silver, and gold medals. He is the smallest Olympiad gold medalist in his grade. The record has been maintained until now;
entered Flinders University in Australia at the age of 14, obtained a bachelor’s degree in two years and a master’s degree in one year;
entered Princeton University in the United States at the age of 17 Bo, who graduated with a Ph.D. at the age of 21, became the youngest professor in the history of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) at the age of 24;
At the age of 31, he won the "Genius Award" from the MacArthur Foundation and has D9597#Fields奖, known as the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics", is known as "Mozart of Mathematics".
This thin, handsome boy is a well-deserved genius. Almost everyone who has seen or heard his story will think so, super IQ, amazing achievements, It was a gift from God.
But only Tao Zhexuan understands:
Smartness is just a small factor, wise family education, unremitting professional exploration and enthusiasm As well as embracing the happiness of life, it really helped him put together the puzzle to succeed.
01
Don’t be over-anticipated, slow down the pace of growth
When you find your child is a child Genius child prodigy, what would you do?
The first reaction of many people is a little panic, Tao Zexuan's parents Tao Xiangguo and Liang Huilan are no exception.
Compared with many people in that era, the Taos belong to the middle class with good education. They are classmates of the University of Hong Kong. One is a pediatrician and the other is a teacher.
In the 1970s, they emigrated to Australia and welcomed their first son Tao Zhexuan in Australia.
▼Tao Zhexuan in Childhood
Tao Zhexuan in Childhood Tao Zhexuan in childhood is not only a cute baby with thick eyebrows, but also earlier He showed his extraordinary talent:
When he was two years old, he began to teach children who were bigger than himself to count;
When he was three years old, he still Will spray arithmetic on the glass with detergent.
After realizing the difference in their son, the Tao family was in a panic, and the legends about child prodigies burst into their minds, "Perhaps we can also cultivate the smallest college student in history, even a doctor." They thought, Tucked the three-and-a-half-year-old son into elementary school uniform and sent him to school.
However, Tao Zexuan returned to the kindergarten soon.
That’s because the Tao family discovered that their young son did not adapt well to the teaching and social environment of elementary school, and always cried at school; and he was only extremely sensitive to numbers Tao Zhexuan, other subjects can hardly keep up.
Tao Zhexuan's father Tao Xiangguo made a decision about this-don't panic and slow down his son's growth.
Desperately catalyze the growth of gifted children, until the cultivation of a "star" that satisfies adults is no longer his goal.
What he thinks of is that while developing his child’s mathematics potential, he should also lay a good foundation in the humanities, and consciously guide and train his son in social, emotional intelligence, etc. Genius who grows at his own pace.
Thanks to such a wise father, Tao Zhexuan's life may have undergone a qualitative change.
In contrast, the three well-known prodigies in mainland China at the same time-Ning Bo, Xie Yanbo and Gan Zheng, almost all of them are in adulthood Under people’s expectation, he rushed all the way towards the “least high-achieving student”. As a result, some became monks and some were insane...
The early intelligence advantage was not allowed. They had the last laugh.
Compared with those prodigies who are consciously or unconsciously pushed forward by adults, Tao Zhexuan is undoubtedly lucky.
He went to kindergarten, elementary school, middle school step by step...
Whenever he goes to a school, his parents will discuss with the principal and give Tao Zhe comprehensive subjects Arrangement and normal campus life, but as long as the child is willing, he can give priority to learning any high-level courses at any time, and skip grades according to his own ideas.
The well-known mathematician Erdes is reviewing the papers written by 10-year-old Tao Zhexuan. In a free and relaxed atmosphere, Tao Zhexuan thrives, and his mathematical talent has been fully displayed, although he has not been Deliberately guiding development in certain directions, the achievements of this little prodigy can still be said to be gratifying!
7-year-old self-taught calculus and published a book on the basic calculation of complete numbers.
Participated in the SAT math test at the age of 8 and a half, and won a high score of 760 points (out of 800).
When he was 10 years old, his thesis was praised by the mathematician Erdes.
Since then, he has been the winning general of the International Olympiad and has frequently appeared under the spotlight of the media.
The Tao family took Tao Zexuan to meet Minaka Gross, a famous local professor who studies genius children. The professor was amazed by Tao Zexuan's super high IQ.
After careful research, Professor Gross suggested that Tao Zhexuan is fully capable of finishing university before the age of 12, setting a new record in Australia, but this suggestion was ultimately not adopted by the Tao family.
They left the decision to their son.
Tao Xiangguo also believes that only by letting children lay a foundation in science, philosophy, art, etc., will Tao Zhexuan’s love for mathematics become more intense as his mind matures, and the future prospects will be broader. .
In 1989, 14-year-old Tao Zhexuan finally entered the university campus. Of course, this is the result of rapid growth.
He spent two years at Flinders University and got his Bachelor of Science with Honours, and then finished his Master in another year.
▼Flinders University
After graduating from his master's degree, Tao Xuan, who has a higher pursuit in the field of mathematics, got his childhood acquaintance A letter of recommendation from the mathematician Eldersh, who went to Princeton University for Ph.D.
This is the real turning point in his life-from a prodigy who is talented in mathematics and has won many awards in competitions to a true mathematics researcher and pioneer.
The year he entered Princeton, he was 17 years old.
02
From the mathematician
In mathematics, there is an interesting phenomenon.
Generally speaking, "Olympic prodigy" and "mathematician" rarely overlap. Many famous mathematicians were not outstanding in the Olympiad when they were young;
And the Olympiad champion may have gone to a higher level of mathematical research and disappeared.
There is actually a difference in nature between taking the Olympic math test and doing scientific research. One is like a sprinter and requires a short-term burst and impact; the other is like a marathon, which requires Victory came only after his patience and accumulation.
But according to Tao Zhexuan’s mentor and Wolf Prize winner Professor Elias Stein, Tao Zhexuan is a very rare person who can be good at both Mathematical and scientific research. .
"A rare wizard in a century", the professor commented on him. But even so, Tao Zexuan, who had just entered Princeton, had encountered the darkest moments in his life.
There are really too many great gods in the Princeton Department of Mathematics. The students are talking about fields that he has never heard of. At the same time, the broad and profound mathematics profession makes him feel more and more. The former ignorance.
▼Princeton University
Tao Zhexuan was depressed for a while, he was addicted to the game and almost hung up to decide whether he could continue. Candidate examination for doctoral studies.
In Tao Zhexuan’s first half of his life, his high IQ helped him solve most of the problems encountered in his life, but after he came here, he discovered that many things are far from depended "I'm smart" can deal with it.
Fortunately, Tao Zhexuan did not delay too long on the wrong path. The “holistic education” he received from an early age gave him the courage to come out of setbacks, and Princeton’s first-class teaching resources allowed him to Open up the road of exploration and come and go freely.
He focuses on multiple directions-from harmonic analysis to partial differential equations; from analytic number theory to arithmetic number theory; and another engineering discipline: the principle of camera compression sensing.
In the process of adjusting his mentality and self-transformation, Tao Zhexuan also feels more and more the beauty of mathematics, the kind of vitality Creativity fascinated him. At the beginning of the millennium, Tao Zexuan and Professor Ben Green, who now teaches at the University of Cambridge, used prime number series to solve a conjecture related to "twin prime numbers":
The arithmetic difference between some prime numbers, For example, between 3, 7, and 11, the average difference is 4; and the next number 15 in the sequence is not a prime number.
They proved that even in the prime number sequence of infinity, such an arithmetic sequence segment can be found. This result caused a sensation in the mathematical world.
After all, since Euclid proposed the concept of "twin prime number" in 2,300 years, it was the first time someone gave a systematic proof. This discovery was also named "Green-Tao theorem" ".
In 2015, Tao Zhexuan again announced that he had proved the "Erdes Difference" proposed by his guide and mathematician Elders in 1932. Before that, this issue was shelved For more than 80 years, "no one cares" until Erdös's death.
Tao Zhexuan is no longer a confused student. He has become the youngest professor in UCLA and a rising star in the mathematics world.
Because of his outstanding contributions in the field of mathematics, he has successively won the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, the Fields Medal and the American National The Allen Waterman Award from the Science Foundation.
The most recent record of awards was the "Mathematics Breakthrough Award" jointly initiated and funded by Ali’s Ma Yun couple, Facebook Zuckerberg couple and others. This award is given to those outstanding Young mathematician awards 3 million US dollars.
After receiving a huge bonus, Tao Zhexuan turned around and donated it to the foundation for cultivating a new generation of young talents. "The flowers will not finish" is the only reason Tao Zhexuan gave.
In his life, scientific research is the eternal theme, Tao Zhexuan early surpassed the prodigy stage who only relied on high IQ to solve problems. Now he is a simple and pure Behind the success of the mathematicians of China is more unrelenting willpower and never giving up in the face of adversity.
"Efforts, bravery, love and persistence are more important than cleverness." Mathematician Tao Zexuan summed up the mystery of success in this way.
03
is a genius and a happy ordinary person
But the teachers and students of UCLA and people around Tao Zexuan know that this young professor is not at allLike the musical prodigy Mozart.
"Freaks" seem to follow the destiny of genius-Newton, grumpy; Nash, paranoid; Perelman, likes to keep long nails...
But the most commendable thing about Tao Zhexuan is that he is different from any of them. He is a genius and a happy ordinary person.
▼Tao Zhexuan's family photo of four
while he met his current wife in UCLA , Laura, a Korean woman three years younger than him. This Kochi woman is now working as an engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She gave birth to Tao Zhexuan and a daughter.
In the group photo of a family of four, Tao Zhexuan always smiles brightly, cuddling his wife and children, just like an ordinary middle-aged man.
Outside he is a highly respected professor, but when he comes home, he is also a dad who can change diapers, play with and send children to school.
A parent who once sent his child to UCLA to participate in a summer camp was surprised to find that
Tao Zhexuan was actually active in their parent group At the end of the summer camp, he personally ran to pick up the baby and went home. He was very cute along the way.
In the answer to the question "What is it like to read a Ph.D. under UCLA Tao Zexuan", a student he had brought replied that Professor Tao is the kind of tolerant to students. But by no means is a tutor who doesn't care about the student.
If a student is "bullyed" by other professors, he will come forward; he is willing to discuss problems with students, and is quick His response is impressive; the most amazing thing is that no matter how difficult the problem is, even Tao Zexuan can't answer it. He always has a way to find talents from all walks of life to help.
Modest, quick response, and wide connections are the unanimous evaluations of Tao Zhexuan by many students.
For those students who cannot enter UCLA and feel its charm up close, there is also a way for them to learn from Teacher Tao, and that is to browse his WordPress.
Usually, Tao Zhexuan will share his thoughts and insights on mathematics here, and will also propose some good ways to learn mathematics.
Students from all over the world come here to leave messages and exchanges. He will read and reply carefully to each one.
As the "New York Times" reporter said when writing the story of Tao Zhexuan:
The most enviable thing about Tao Zhexuan is not amazing. His talents and outstanding achievements, while sitting on these geniuses and achievements, can also grow into a happy "ordinary person" who enjoys a healthy life.
There are not many geniuses in this world, and there are even fewer happy and happy geniuses.
Fortunately, a genius like Tao Zhexuan showed us somethingThe appearance of a child with extraordinary aptitude, after fully stretching himself.
Tao Zhexuan’s secret to embracing a happy life is the inner talent and hard work, the education and guidance from the outside world, or a combination of both, I am afraid that different people will have different answers.
For most people, becoming a genius is a thing that can be expected rather than that is , but it is precisely the ordinary majority of us who construct The soil for the growth of genius prodigy.
The emergence of geniuses is not rare, but how to grow into a "Tao Zhexuan" genius is always a question worth considering.
