Hacker News Reader

> If Terence Tao wasn't school-shaped, would he have been as successful?

He learned to read and write by himself. I'm pretty sure he would've been fine regardless of shape.

And that's probably the opposite of being school-shaped. School is hellishly boring if you're ahead of the curve.

That's a specific school problem. I think being school-shaped is not about being bored, but more about being willing to do tasks on a schedule and can learn a lot of material through a lecture style.

The pdf linked seems to disagree with your assessment, at least for Tao.

Agreed. But generally it very much depends on the school and the effort of those in and around it. Terrence was very fortunate to have parents who supported him and likely lobbied for his unconventional high school/primary school split education, and equally fortunate that his schools were able and willing to accommodate him.

At that age I thought it was perfectly normal, just not universal.

What sticks in my mind from the pre-school Mad magazines was the mascot philosophy; "What, me worry?"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com