> Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760
I think genetics have more to do with this level of achievement than encouragement from an engaged father. Tao has 2 brothers - why aren't they mathematical supergeniuses too? Either he was born with a brain that has extraordinary analytical ability, or he was born with an insane work ethic not commonly associated with young kids. But even then, are there reports of him having to work super hard to understand things? If you can do advanced algebra at age 5, I'd say your brain is something extraordinary. Whether the underlying reason for that extraordinary brain is due to genes or some other trigger, it likely was not mainly due to an "encouraging father", IMO.
Regarding his brothers, imagine if IQ is like a bunch of switches. TT was born with all his switches flipped 'on' out of some maximum. His brothers were born with most of them flipped on, as were his parents. Having high IQ parents increases the odds of more switches being flipped on, but having all of them flipped is still innate.
You can't (your germ line mutations are fixed, and even if you could change your genes in place your brain has already developed according to the previous genetic code and environment). You can only choose where to direct the output of your already flipped switches.
People on Reddit are taking pills to try and do that. Sometimes you hear about them getting aggressive cancers. Other times you hear about them semi-successfully treating damage they did to their brains with past drug use. Randomized controlled trials never show anything, but if you're being held back from being a genius by one protein that you got a bad gene for, you'd be one of the positive testimonials without showing up above the noise in a trial. Who knows.
Ask again in 2122.
In the meantime, I guess, we all need to learn that our worth as a person is determined by who we are, not what we are.
Very impressive no doubt, and again, they are brothers, so genetics plays a part. But their achievements aren't even close.
His (younger) brother, Nigel achieved two bronze medals (placing 132nd and 114th overall) at the age of 15 and 16 [0]. Quite good, specially at a younger age than most participants.
Terence [1] got a gold medal (13th place) right before completing 13 years of age. He achieved a similar feat (28th place) around his 12th birthday and a more humble performance (87th place, but still better than his brother's best) around his 11th birthday. At 11, better than 58% of his competition, some of the best 17 and 18 year olds at competitive math in the world.
He is cited as "the youngest bronze, silver, and gold medalist, respectively, in IMO history." [2]
If I were to guess, his brothers and parents pushed him, and had more experience with teaching compared to their older son. They got him interested, and he went from there.
He was probably lucky to be the younger brother growing up.
Oh, then I was completely wrong :D I would think the youngest kids are generally the more academically advanced. (But this is coming from someone who has 0 kids :D)
> Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age, attending university-level mathematics courses at the age of 9. He is one of only two children in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760
I think genetics have more to do with this level of achievement than encouragement from an engaged father. Tao has 2 brothers - why aren't they mathematical supergeniuses too? Either he was born with a brain that has extraordinary analytical ability, or he was born with an insane work ethic not commonly associated with young kids. But even then, are there reports of him having to work super hard to understand things? If you can do advanced algebra at age 5, I'd say your brain is something extraordinary. Whether the underlying reason for that extraordinary brain is due to genes or some other trigger, it likely was not mainly due to an "encouraging father", IMO.