I still remember the realization in college at Flinders University in Australia that mathematics was not just an abstract game of symbols but could be used as a tool to analyze and understand the modern world.
Terence TaoRead
You want to get to the top of the cliff. But that's not what you focus on immediately. You focus on the next ledge just beyond your reach, because you need to do one clever thing to get up there. And then, once you get there, you do it again. A lot of this is rather boring and not very glamorous. But you can't jump cliffs in a single bound.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focus on small, achievable steps rather than trying to accomplish everything at once.
This quote by Terence Tao emphasizes the importance of setting incremental goals on the path to achieving a larger objective. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead, it suggests concentrating on manageable tasks that lead to progress, reinforcing the idea that success is built through consistent effort and perseverance, even when the process seems tedious or unexciting.
Themes
MotivationIncrementalProgressGoal-SettingEffort
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about achieving personal goals.
More from Terence Tao
All quotes βMost students who take math classes aren't going to be mathematicians. They're going to be engineers, statisticians - in many ways, that's the more important mission of math education.
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For me, I guess the main motivation is the satisfaction of finally understanding some tricky mathematical concept or phenomenon and then explaining it to others.
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One can think of any given axiom system as being like a computer with a certain limited amount of memory or processing power. One could switch to a computer with even more storage, but no matter how large an amount of storage space the computer has, there will still exist some tasks that are beyond its ability.
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I recall being fascinated by numbers even at age three and viewed their manipulation as a kind of game.
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Talent is important, but how one develops and nurtures it is even more so.
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