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Comment by dfdz | Hacker News Reader

In case anyone missed the response to a similar comment on the blog:

> Terence Tao on 27 January, 2022 at 10:31 am The production values of the lecture series given by Masterclass would not be possible for me to replicate by myself. (For instance, the film shoot alone involved well over a dozen people, including makeup, prop design, camera and lighting crew, director, editing, etc., in a custom studio with professional-quality recording equipment. The professional scriptwriting services were also very valuable, improving the selection and arrangement of material in ways I would not have thought of.)

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Yes, sounds like he is trying to reach a different audience, versus trying to reach the HN audience in a different way.

Plenty of Youtube teachers put out good quality stuff without access to any of that. People would listen to Terrence Tao using a cheap ass webcam and drawing on screen using a Wacom tablet. It's a justification for something that doesn't add value for learning mathematical thinking. To me it sounds more like he gets paid a passive income and a lump sum to make infotainment.

> Plenty of Youtube teachers put out good quality stuff without access to any of that. People would listen to Terrence Tao using a cheap ass webcam and drawing on screen using a Wacom tablet. It's a justification for something that doesn't add value for learning mathematical thinking. To me it sounds more like he gets paid a passive income and a lump sum to make infotainment.

That's possible. It's also possible that Terrance Tao is correct in his judgement that using Masterclass was worth it for him. Personally I'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not lying.

I didn't say he was lying, I just think the value add of a crew of this size is overrated.

Well he knows what he's capable of and knows what the crew is capable of. I think it makes more sense to assume he know what he's talking about rather than not. I mean he might literally never have done this without Masterclass at all.

I never said anything about not knowing what he's talking about either. It's a bit hard to have a discussion like this.

I think the gratuitous cynicism toward the mathematician is uncalled for. Terence Tao has devoted a lot of time writing educational articles on his blog. [1] If he mainly cares for passive income, he could divert a bit of time to hire a production company and film a few courses. He would own 100% of the contents and make millions simply out of his global name recognition.

Going with Masterclass is probably the path of least resistance for him to create high-quality video content while continuing to spend most time on research and other educational activities.

Another possible factor: Many good mathematicians are quite perfectionistic and would not want to create homemade-quality videos if they can avoid it.

[1] https://terrytao.wordpress.com/

> He would own 100% of the contents and make millions simply out of his global name recognition.

I think you overestimate how commercially viable actual teaching is as opposed to infotainment. Either way, infotainment allows him to earn money and talk about a subject he loves. Good for him and people love infotainment, it tickles their brains just enough but not too much to require actual thinking.

There are large groups of people who do care about their own’s and their kids’ mathematical education — some in North America and other continents and a huge number in Asia.

An example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/16/south-korea-te...

“Teaching pays: Cha said he earned $8m last year. “I’m madly in love with maths,” he said, looking the height of trendiness in his crimson shirt and trousers and tweed jacket, in his office in Gangnam – a wealthy part of Seoul famous for its conspicuous consumption and featured in the song Gangnam Style.”

There is a reason the PISA results of some countries stay consistently near the top: https://factsmaps.com/pisa-2018-worldwide-ranking-average-sc...

I don't think you understand the pressure he is under. Being a mathematician is not a joke, they project a fear-aura and can never tell a lie. It's the closest you can come to finding aliens on the planet.

Sure, if you're a full time youtuber already with years of experience knowing how to script, film, light, edit, do post production, etc. etc. etc.

A lot of these youtubers who put out fantastic videos do essentially all the same things as the Masterclass production crew, but just on a smaller scale. Countless hours are poured into producing these youtube videos that are maybe just as short as 10 minutes.

And even if Terrance Tao wants to make some infotainment, what's wrong with that?

> To me it sounds more like he gets paid a passive income and a lump sum to make infotainment.

Whether or not something's infotainment and whether or not it could be done more cheaply are orthogonal. There's no reason for him to make this on Youtube, any more than there's a reason for plumbers to do plumbing for nothing in their spare time.

I didn't claim they were related. The justification for the cost of MasterClass was that they have a huge crew that produces these professional looking video's. Which is probably true, but I think the value added is not big enough to justify the cost. There's no reason to make it on Youtube because he doesn't make money that way, I agree. We don't live forever after all. I mainly see it as a way for him to make some extra money and there is nothing wrong with that.

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