This is a fantastic blog post and it needed to come from someone as accomplished as Tao.
The cult of genius can be very caustic to young minds, especially in mathematics. I used to do some rather stupid things out of a combined sense of pressure from family, teachers, and peers. I would compare myself unfairly to historical luminaries as a yardstick of what I should be accomplishing at what age. I worked incredibly hard, but on intractable problems and not on reasonable pieces of research for even a precocious mathematician. My grades suffered because I thought I was going to solve some open conjecture instead of learn the tools bit by bit like virtually every other successful mathematician had done before me.
Depression can set in when you discover that your 20th birthday has passed and you are not Evariste Galois. I know it sounds stupid when it is phrased like that but human psychology is full of improbable behavior designed around avoiding cognitive dissonance. We're funny meatbots.
I think to me it might've been more reassuring if it came from someone other than Tao. I tend to put Tao more in the Galois-like depressing category, given how much he had already accomplished by the time he was 20 (he was promoted to full professor at age 24). There's no amount of hard work that can replicate his trajectory unless you go back and start it at age 8, and even then it's unlikely.
_delirium: I highly recommend you read this short biography of Scottish scientist James Croll, who developed the modern theory of Ice Ages -- with little formal education, he decided to become a scientist while working as a janitor at the age of 38: http://www.guildtownandwolfhill.org.uk/assets/files/pdf/Jame...
Edit: submitted the link as http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4370924 because Croll's story can be very inspirational for the many entrepreneurs on HN who're coping with the challenges of building a business from scratch.
Why is an exception like Croll, who is literally one out of thousands (how many scientists make their breakthrough in their late 30s/40s, while working at menial labor? now, how many cranks do that...) of any interest?
The cult of genius can be very caustic to young minds, especially in mathematics. I used to do some rather stupid things out of a combined sense of pressure from family, teachers, and peers. I would compare myself unfairly to historical luminaries as a yardstick of what I should be accomplishing at what age. I worked incredibly hard, but on intractable problems and not on reasonable pieces of research for even a precocious mathematician. My grades suffered because I thought I was going to solve some open conjecture instead of learn the tools bit by bit like virtually every other successful mathematician had done before me.
Depression can set in when you discover that your 20th birthday has passed and you are not Evariste Galois. I know it sounds stupid when it is phrased like that but human psychology is full of improbable behavior designed around avoiding cognitive dissonance. We're funny meatbots.