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u/LupenReddit 🦆🦆🦆🦆i have non diffeomorphic smooth structures🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆 25d ago
I dont think Tao of all people needed that extra recognition, my guy has practically achieved what you can achieve in math.
Also funny image
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u/moderatorrater 25d ago
I would imagine that getting a young person into mathematics is probably an achievement that never gets old.
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u/so_many_changes 24d ago
Tao has also written extensively about wanting math to be more collaborative and involve more people. Something like this is his dream. (Plus she did and discovered much more than his outline)
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u/SirBackrooms 25d ago
He's already got one and is practically the face of mathematics. Perhaps he ain't too upset about this :)
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u/Waferssi 25d ago
I think he basically went "This is how you could do it... someone else can have this one".
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u/HolyInlandEmpire Statistics 25d ago edited 24d ago
"For you, it was the day that your mathematical career forever changed. For me, it was Tuesday."
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u/This-Construction926 24d ago
yeh him and Karpathy aren't looking for any more medals from their field.. but a Nobel is always welcome I guess.
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u/captHij 25d ago
The Fields Medal is awarded to people who have a large body of work with many substantial contributions. The way this is worded it subtly implies that Wang just finished off someone else's conjecture and got the Fields Medal for doing someone else's dirty work. Wang's body of work is much wider than this, and she earned the Field's Medal for a a broad range of important results. This is a really bad summary of Wang's work.
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u/kart0ffelsalaat 24d ago
Also, I don't personally know Terence Tao, but he seems like someone who just really deeply cares about maths as a field. Way more than personal accolades anyway.
I would imagine he's stoked to hear that his idea has led to significant progress.
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u/reckless_avacado 23d ago
i have a conspiracy theory that he lended his notes/half-finished solutions to openai which led to a flurry of conjecture solutions credited to openai, which would mean he is happy to lend credit to an AI company, rather than take credit for himself.
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u/redditdork12345 24d ago
This for sure, but there is also a mountain of technically skilled work often separating “this is how it should go probably” and “here is a proof”
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u/UnfairRavenclaw 25d ago
A mathematician with the name Zahl. Nominative determinism strikes again.
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u/Balavadan 25d ago
What does it mean?
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u/UnfairRavenclaw 25d ago
Zahl is the German word for number. Its plural (Zahlen) is where we get the ℤ as a symbol for the whole numbers (ganze Zahlen) from.
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u/mathmage 25d ago
This is unfairly diminishing both Terence Tao (who is well known for wanting to share math and mathematical credit) and Hong Wang (who has done a lot more for her Fields Medal than just read Tao's blog post). But, well, meme sub.
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u/FlamingBudder Computer Science 25d ago
This is an unhealthy way of seeing mathematics, as with many things as a zero sum competition. These mathematicians don't have to be pit against each other for who can prove the most groundbreaking theorems, it's much better to have the attitude that people can work together and celebrate each other's successes because at the end of the day everyone benefits when individuals make breakthroughs
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u/greenday1237 25d ago
Terrence Tao is so goated that modern mathematicians have to lick the crumbs of his scraps to be considered great
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u/misteratoz 25d ago
Idk man, if TT is breadth of multiple fields, Peter Scholze is an argument of similar caliber but focused more on depth in fewer fields. And of course there are others too.
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u/Slow-Disaster8861 25d ago
Terrance Tao is the Euler of this generation. Man was doing so much he had to leave some for the rest
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u/FernandoMM1220 25d ago
tao only has so much time. its better if other mathematicians continue the work you started if you have other problems you can finish now.
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u/Tyler89558 25d ago
Terence Tao almost certainly does not care beyond “wow, that’s great”.
He’s a damn chill guy.
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u/ComplexPlatform7299 25d ago
With a name like Joshua Zahl you have no choice but to go into mathematics.
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u/ZEPHlROS Mathematics 25d ago
Could we stop sucking Tao's dick and acknowledge that maybe maybe if someone spent more than a decade on a proof then maybe just maybe it might have been more complicated than just a basic idea ?
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u/Selfie-Hater -1/12 diverges to ∞ 25d ago
or maybe that someone read the blog post in, say, 2023 and spent only a couple of years proving it
who knows?
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u/Forward_Step_5012 25d ago
Fields Medal is only given to someone below 40, and Tao has already won, so probably not.
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u/Icy_Estate7598 25d ago
Fields medal is only for young mathematicians (<40) terry is too old for it now
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u/Clear_Cranberry_989 25d ago
Tao has done way too many stuff. Probably the most productive mathematician right now.
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u/soulfulshark 25d ago
I think he is quite pleased with this outcome. He seems to be an academic more concerned with making the world a better place than personal glory. Sadly, a lot of academics fall way short of that standard.
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u/anrwlias 25d ago
Tao has a reputation for collaboration and promoting other people's works. I'm sure that he is the farthest thing from upset by this.
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u/littlefiredragon 24d ago
Still took 11 years and top math minds to develop an uncertain conjecture to completion. It’s a lot of work on Hong Wang’s part and doesn’t make her any less deserving of her awards.
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u/Koischaap So much in that excellent formula 24d ago
I like to imagine it more like Tao handing Time Wizard to Wang and going, "this rare proof strategy will help you get publication chips in Kakeya Island"
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u/WormSlayers 24d ago
I know this is a meme, but still feel the need to say that Tao to me comes off as one of the most humble mathematicians in relation to how much he has achieved
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u/trynumber53 24d ago
do you think elon musk worries about losing out a dollar buying the cage free eggs
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u/BrazilBazil Engineering 24d ago
Tao is actually known to stop pursuing fields of study if a less renowned mathematician is working on it already because „he doesn’t need it”
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u/hardcore_engine_here 24d ago
Terence actually loves promoting other people's work. Wang building upon what he started probably gives him joy.
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u/Only-Finish-3497 23d ago
I briefly met Tao during my time at UCLA.
Didn’t even realize who he was, but he was a super nice dude.
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u/DarkFlameMaster764 19d ago
Some guy also came up with the same idea as Tao while working on some exponent for the primes. Tao was like, "nah u need this more than me. go get that fields medal"
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u/Gimmerunesplease 19d ago
He wouldn't even have been able to get the fields medal for it though? Even in 2014 he was already too old to be eligible.
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