Should i still do math if i am not the next Euler?

[Physiana]

I struggled with exactly the same question many many times. And I agree that the most stupid people are those who are unable to admit that the know next to nothing ;) They have come to believe that geniuses would know everything and have forgotten that even geniuses are humans and thus very limited.

So, the point is, if you are trying to understand deeply what you learn right now, it will of course be difficult. For almost everyone I know the first semesters in math were terrible. Also, I remember constructing some good and unique (in my course) math homework. But until I got there it was a true fight.

In my opinion the way you learn math and also physics (at least where I am now) is to torture your mind on ways of thinking and that is difficult in the beginning. Of course from the view of a graduate student the problems of first years seem to be almost trivial, but that is only because they have been there earlier.

So if you like it and if you think you can understand and do the rigorous way of thinking mathematics requires then don't give up just because you face some problems.

I don't think your question is actually if you become next Euler or Goedel or whomever. I think your question is rather is it so difficult, because I am stupid? My answer is no, it is difficult to most of us. What helps is a calm mind and not panicking after facing something that is difficult to understand. If that is your problem and if you won't be able to overcome that fear then it might be better to do something that doesn't require so much patience and is learning only instead of thinking ;)

Also try to see how much energy you waste by focussing on your personal skills. Maybe most problems would be easier if you would worry about them instead about your abilities ;)

Good luck!

P.S.: And even if one is not genious, science is working on problems together with many many others. They somehow also rely on your work being honest and correct. So even if I am not genious I can try to be as "true" as possible and it is much better to only talk about sth I really understand than "small talking" about almost every theory - which is what I have realized most people do. They just pretend to know everything but there are only very few that really understand what they do. So if for your mates everything is easy don't worry ;) most just pretend it is.

P.P.S.: Someone I knew quit his phd studies after few weeks after he heard a professor (70 years) saying that he still sometimes struggles hard to understand sth. That's science and better be prepared for that :)

 

[hadsed]

If you haven't, you should read some of Feynman's stuff. The man was brilliant, but in his own way. He loved just... thinking and understanding the most fundamental things, and in his fun he made one of the most important discoveries in his field of study. How? By calculating rotations of a spinning plastic plate thrown in the air by a student in a cafeteria during lunch one day, and taking it one step further. He knew he wasn't a genius, certainly not the genius that you may think these men are. They were simply curious, and if you are curious and you truly care about making discoveries not for your own gain, but to further the collective intelligence of the human race, then you will fulfill that goal if you work hard enough. And if you love it enough, you will WANT to work hard enough. It won't even BE work. Personally, once I get to thinking about anything, I have a drive to sit or go somewhere to figure out/learn how it works, why it works, the usual fundamental questions. It just so happens that I love doing this in physics via mathematics. That's my personal reason for wanting to do theoretical physics. I suspect that this is the same for all of the great scientists, known and [more importantly] unknown. Ed Witten would be nowhere without Feynman. Feynman would be nowhere without Einstein and Bohr. They wouldn't be anywhere without Planck, who would never be anywhere without Maxwell, who would never be anywhere without Newton. It keeps going and going and going. Somewhere, thousands of years ago, someone wondered how and why the sun came up in the morning and went down in the evening and why the sky is blue and how to make fire or how to kill animals easily. Building houses, catching fish, farming, these are all the humble beginnings of all of us. I think if you keep it in perspective, you won't lose hope.

If you don't become world famous, who cares? You've fulfilled your goal. To hell with Nobel Prizes.

 

[kramer733]

Most mathematicians don't get extremely famous until they're dead. So you never know. Perhaps your discovery on the field will become a huge breakthrough when you're dead.

 

[shinkyo00]

How do you guys deal with the fact that even though you enjoy Mathematics or Physics, you will probably never be the next Euler, Gauss, Nash, Einstein, Feynman etc? It really puts me off reading about how talented these people were.

Sometimes i just feel redundent. I will get frustrated when i can't understand something and i will feel stupid. The same thing occurs when i get a problem wrong, i will get quite pissed off and tell myself "fine this is it, no more maths for me" or "there goes being a math major"

Should i still do mathematics if i don't have that Gift? Honestly i need help in deciding wether its ok and if so, how to motivate myself to continue...

sorry if this post was a bit of a ramble

if you do bit of research, you'll find that feynman didn't have some sort of "special talent"!

there are many credible accounts by friends of his that he was just constantly thinking:

e.g. roger penrose is quoted as having said that he felt exhausted after talking to feynman about some topic in physics... but a friend of feynman's said that feynman was thinking about those topics all the time and if you will, think of it as a kind of "rehearsal"

another example is when feynman was taking a class and the prof had left some notes on a table before a lecture began. feynman went over and peeked at the notes and realized that it contained the solution to a very very difficult problem that was written on the board for that lecture. so when the prof walked in and presented the problem to the class, feynman simply said "well that's obvious!" and proceeded to demonstrate the solution, which he had already SEEN

if you want to know more, PM me and i'll give you some sources (there are many such accounts provided by close friends of his)

i'm not so sure about the other people you listed but as for feynman, i know it's not what most people think

 

[vanesch]

If I may add something, in line with several other comments here. First of all, as others said, your worries are normal: at a certain point in life, you have to realize that there are "better" people than you are. It's part of growing up, of becoming mature. Of course, as long as you think that you are the next Einstein, this is somehow stimulating - but sooner or later you will have to confront hard reality. I think it is a kind of syndrom that many "bright students" have to go through. I did too. Point is, if you are more than average interested in a subject, and you think a lot about it, chances are that up to college level, you will far outshine any of your co-students. So your only reference point is that you are "the best" in your immediate social environment, and that during years. Even if sometimes you aren't officially, you can always tell yourself the excuse that you have been unlucky on that occasion or something. That doesn't mean that you don't have to work, that doesn't mean that you won't get stuck,... but you compare and you see that others in your immediate social environment don't do really better. You have your chances to be "the best".
But at graduate/PhD level, suddenly you're mixed in with other "best guys" and you see that mileage can differ. That the world is a much bigger place than your classmates of high school. Worse, that you've made wrong choices in where to do what with whom. That the skills you found yourself so brilliant about, are, well, "not always in the market". So you finally realize that the next Nobel is NOT going to be yours. That it will even be terribly difficult to do SOMETHING immediately brilliant. At some point, you'll have to go through that bit of growing up (unless you ARE one of those happy few, but statistically, chances are much greater that you win the lottery...).

So what to do next ? Give it all up ? Throw it away ?
No ! Unless you did win the lottery, or are of rich descent, or will get married to Paris Hilton or something, you will have to do something terrible in your life: make a living!

And, at the same time that the world "got bigger" and you realized how much more smart guys and galls are out there, the world also got bigger concerning possible things to do. You wanted to be the smartest scientist, simply because, well, it's the only thing you could think of of doing in your life. But as your world view opens up, you'll see many other opportunities. You won't know what will there will be, you have to keep an open mind on what to do. It's good to have some dream (to keep motivated), but it is also good to let it go at a certain point, if you see that you can do something else.
And now comes the important thing: whatever you will want to do later, and whatever opportunities that will present, it is always more fun to do something that has something to do with stuff you like and you are good at, than "just anything". Scientific skills, mathematical skills are useful in society in a gazillion ways. Not only to "make science advance". In fact, if it were only to make science advance, science by itself wouldn't have much usage. Using science, using math, to DO something in the real world can be very rewarding. You might be surprised - well, *I* was - how much you can help in different places with just first or second year mathematics, thoroughly understood. You might be surprised how many people - even in important positions - aren't able to work out a mathematical problem related to their field of expertise, from beginning to end that you would expect to be an exam question in first or second year.
So there is A LOT OF ROOM for people having some good understanding of science and mathematics. You can do a lot of interesting things. You can be very useful (and be rewarded for it). Even if you are not Euler. Especially if you are not Euler, I'd say.

As a summary: in as much as you discover how many terribly smart people there are around and you're not in the competition for a Nobel or Field medal with them, at the same time you will discover how many more ignorant people there are that you will be able to help out (and are willing to pay you) with moderately good math / science problem solving skills.

At least that's my experience.

 

[abelgalois]

Ever wonder what made Euler, Euler? (Besides being a genius) One of the things that makes brilliant people brilliant is their "rage to master". They find their work intrinsically interesting. Well that's a pretty dull way of putting it. The topics that they study light a rapturous fire in their hearts. A fire that drives them to work feverishly, 10, 12, 14 hours(In Ramanujan's case, 30 hours!) every day, for decades improving, studying, and discovering.

One of the components for such inspired motivation is to value process goals and "improvement/learning" over end goals and perceived competence. Valuing how history will rank you, or how people will perceive your greatness, or even your grades over making progress, learning, improving and on the specific things does not produce lasting, long-term motivation to do math. Or to devote the long, exhausting hours necessary to do great work.

I suggest taking a long hard look at yourself. What do you really want? Because what's far worse than not being the next Euler is being 50 years old and realizing you wasted your time on something you only moderately liked to begin with.

And anyways, Euler was no Gauss!

 

[johng23]

Being the next Gauss would be nice, but even if you can't, at least you can have a career you actually enjoy. It seems like not many people in the world have that. You're going to spend most of your life working, that's really the more pressing issue.

If you don't enjoy it, you'll be miserable working 12 hour days trying to compete with all the people who seem to do that for fun. Whether you eventually make an impact or not, it isn't worth it.