我是其实不怎么看学术界的新闻，不过最近这个名字太火了—陶哲轩，(1975年7月15日，出生在澳大利亚阿得雷德)，随便上网看新闻就能知道2006年麦克阿瑟天才奖给予了一位“数学莫扎特”，我想之所以这么火，主要原因还是他是个华裔。在google上搜索他的中英文名字，就能找到一堆链接：
Terence Tao: The “Mozart of Math”
Terence Tao, ‘Mozart of Math,’ wins Fields Medal, called ‘Nobel Prize in math’
可以知道这是个牛人，而且很年轻，还在成长。接着就有些眼花缭乱，感觉全世界人都在描述他怎么怎么牛。什么2岁教别人算算术啊、13岁得奥数金牌啦等等， 本来这种新闻对我来说就是八卦，看完后最多感慨一声：牛人真多啊～。然后继续看下一个八卦新闻。这次之所以会多罗嗦几句写在博客里，是看到有位有心人摘抄了一些Tao的 话语，看后倒是有些体会，所以就收录下来了。学习一下牛人是怎么解决问题的。
How does Tao describe his success? “I don’t have any magical ability,” he said. “I look at a problem, and it looks something like one I’ve already done; I think maybe the idea that worked before will work here. When nothing’s working out; then I think of a small trick that makes it a little better, but still is not quite right. I play with the problem, and after a while, I figure out what’s going on. [separator] “Most mathematicians faced with a problem, will try to solve the problem directly. Even if they get it, they might not understand exactly what they did. Before I work out any details, I work on the strategy. Once I have a strategy, a very complicated problem can split up into a lot of mini-problems. I’ve never really been satisfied with just solving the problem; I want to see what happens if I make some changes. “It’s not about being smart or even fast,” Tao added. “It’s like climbing a cliff; if you’re very strong and quick and have a lot of rope, it helps, but you need to devise a good route to get up there. Doing calculations quickly and knowing a lot of facts are like a rock climber with strength, quickness and good tools; you still need a plan – that’s the hard part – and you have to see the bigger picture.”
可惜到现在我还满足在doing calculations quickly and knowing a lot of facts 阶段。【2010-2-8】
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