Re: My Experience as a "Non Gifted" Child

From: Jim Nastos (nastos_at_cs.ualberta.ca)
Date: 05/14/04 

Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 23:38:35 -0600

On Thu, 13 May 2004, JimC wrote:

> "Jim Nastos" <nastos@cs.ualberta.ca> wrote in message
> news:Pine.LNX.4.44.0405122320150.28600-100000@tees.cs.ualberta.ca...
> > On 12 May 2004, William S wrote:
> >
> > > If you don't recall, I'm THIRTEEN! I'M IN MIDDLE SCHOOL! But I am
> > > frighteningly good at math... And by frighteningly, check my post
> > > about the Weierstrass p-function...
> >
> > Even if you were 13, *knowing* a lot of math does not make you *good* at
> > math. If you were truly good at math, people would know about you.
>
> Why? Is there a nocturnal bot that looks for math prodigies?

  No, but is someone is "frighteningly good" at math, that person would be
winning prizes or contests or whatnot. It's not uncommon for a young
student (maybe a bit older than a 13 year old) to compete in the
international math olympiad, and just competing at that age would be big
news I would be familiar with. (If someone says that 13 is too young to
compete at the IMO, the counter-statement is that a 13 year old is too
young to discuss Weierstrass p-functions.)
  So, if the 13 year old is still reading this and still claiming his
frightfully good math skills, maybe he could enlighten us on his
accomplishments to back up that statement. Without them, we can just
assume he knows a lot of math and isn't necessarily good at it.

> A guy was sitting there in a wing chair that I didn't
> have in my room. He put his finger to his lips and
> said in English, "Shhh. I'm trying to find out where
> the geniuses are. Shhh." Sounded very
> conspiratorial. I left in a hurry, and never did find
> out how he did.

  That's an interesting story.

J

Relevant Pages