Klarinet Archive - Posting 000471.txt from 2003/03

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Castelnuovo-Tedesco Question
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 04:56:40 -0500

Dan

It's certainly true of mathematicians, but not of scientists (which does
not contain the class of mathematicians), nor of scholars in the more
"parallel" disciplines of humanities and absolutely not of film
directors and composers, in which originality and creativity can extend
into ripe old age. Maybe it is because young minds have tremendous
horsepower and can succeed at subjects such as mathematics where one
doesn't really need to know very much in order to innovate; indeed, the
knowledge itself seems to inhibit further disruptive innovation. In
other fields one often has to know a great deal more, and assimilate it,
before reaching the frontier of innovation.

We'd be terribly badly off if we excluded all mathematics done by under
21 year olds. In music we'd miss some gems, but would still have most of
the great works.

Keith Bowen

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Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 08:39:32 -0800
From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Castelnuovo-Tedesco Question
Message-ID: <3E468444.5090805@-----.net>

It's absolutely true. The opportunity for a mathematician to do really
creative work almost evaporates after the age of 30. They are simply
too set in their ways, they begin ancestor worship, etc.

Sir Isaac Newton, who was one of the best, did all of his great work by
the time he was 17. And the greatest of them all, Alvariste Galois,
died at 21 with only one paper to his name, but that one paper
revolutionized modern matheatmics.

However, once these fabulous minds settle into middle age, they do some
pretty good work.

Dan

Forest E. Aten Jr. wrote:
> Dan,
>
> I recently listened to an interview on NPR with a contemporary
> mathematician/author promoting his newest book. The book noted this
> phenomena of "original" thought in younger minds. He documented this
> using a historical review of math breakthroughs and noting the age of
> the mathematician at the time. It seems that the older the
> mathematician the more "set in their ways".....a few anomalies...but
> not many in his historical review. I'll try to find the reference.
> It's been several months and I while I was intrigued, I wasn't
> listening well enough to remember the authors name.
>
> Forest

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