John_Maxwell_IV comments on Innate Mathematical Ability - LessWrong

40 Post author: JonahSinick 18 February 2015 11:11AM

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Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 18 February 2015 03:20:06PM 2 points [-]

Tao's apparent lack of awareness of the role of his exceptional abstract reasoning ability in his mathematical success may be attributable to relatively low metacognition. (I should apologize to Tao here – it wasn't

Looks like you left an unfinished sentence here?

Tao's blog looks rather metacognitive to me, BTW.

Comment author: JonahSinick 18 February 2015 07:37:56PM 1 point [-]

Looks like you left an unfinished sentence here?

Yeah, I was going to apologize for analyzing his psychology based on data from his childhood that was made public before he was at an age to give informed consent, but I decided not to because I also didn't want to presume that Tao would be bothered. I cut the unfinished sentence.

Tao's blog looks rather metacognitive to me, BTW.

Yes, I was comparing him to people like Poincare, etc. and added an edit to this effect in response to your comment and gjm's.