Terence Tao



Terence "Terry" Chi-Shen Tao (simplified Chinese: 陶哲轩; traditional Chinese: 陶哲軒; pinyin: Táo Zhéxuān) (born 17 July 1975, Adelaide), is a Chinese Australian mathematician.

Solving Mathematical Problems (2nd ed., 2006)

 * Understand the problem. What kind of problem is it? There are three main types of problems: ‘Show that ...’ or ‘Evaluate ...’ questions, in which a certain statement has to be proved true, or a certain expression has to be worked out; ‘Find a...’ or ‘Find all...’ questions, which requires one to find something (or everything) that satisfies certain requirements; ‘Is there a ...’ questions, which either require you to prove a statement or provide a counterexample (and thus is one of the previous two types of problem).
 * Ch. 1 : Strategies in problem solving

What Is Inquiry-Based Learning? (2017)

 * The objective in mathematics is not to obtain the highest ranking, the highest score, or the highest number of prizes and awards; instead, it is to increase understanding of mathematics (both for yourself, and for your colleagues and students), and to contribute to its development and applications.

On requests for career advice

 * Relying on intelligence alone to pull things off at the last minute may work for a while, but generally speaking at the graduate level or higher it doesn't. One needs to do a serious amount of reading and writing, and not just thinking, in order to get anywhere serious in mathematics.