The difference between elementary school olympiad and high school olympiad can be said to be completely irrelevant. Especially the primary school olympiad is the result of commercialization in recent ten years. Business logic is actually very simple and can bring the greatest benefits.
There are many pupils. The cardinal number is relatively large.
Institutional investment is relatively small. Teachers don't need to be too tall.
Parents are willing to invest: they are willing to invest because they don't know if their children are this material.
Maximum base x maximum input-minimum cost = maximum income
In high school, the population base is relatively small, and parents know whether their children are of this material or not, and their investment is also limited. And at this stage, the cost of a big teacher is very high. So the income is limited.
Under this logic, with the promotion of many educational institutions, it is the primary school olympiad that is in full swing in China, and many things are learned in advance, which also makes everyone complain. However, in fact, this thing has nothing to do with high school olympiad.
The difference between Olympic Games and senior high school mathematics research
It matters, but it doesn't matter much. Some people compare IMO to 100 meter race and professional mathematicians to NFL, which is a long-term race. But one thing is certain: IMO can screen out a group of children who are more talented in mathematics.
Although everyone's opinion is one-sided because of the primary school olympiad diss, the whole China olympiad. China's Olympic Games still have a place in the world.
And it has indeed trained a large number of mathematical talents. Look at what the Olympic gold medals cultivated in these decades are doing.
China's gold medals since 1990s are mostly engaged in mathematical research;
Yun Zhiwei won the gold medal in mathematics in 2000, and was a doctoral student in mathematics at Princeton University, USA.
Yuan Xinyi won the gold medal in mathematics in 2000, and was a doctoral student in mathematics at Columbia University.
Wu won the gold medal in mathematics in 2000, and received a doctorate in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Zhenhua Qu 1999 Gold Award for Doctor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, University of Texas, USA.
Liu Ruochuan 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. Mathematics Gold Award
Zhu 1999 Silver Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Yi Ni 1997 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics, Princeton, USA
Han Jiarui 1997 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Statistics, Stanford, USA
Chen Huayi 1996 Gold Award for Doctor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics, Paris Institute of Technology, France.
Yan Jun 1996 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Finance, Stanford University, USA
He Xuhua 1996 Gold Prize in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Wang Lie 1996 Silver Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D., Department of Statistics, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Cai 1996 Silver Prize in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics, California Institute of Technology, USA
Liu Fu 1996 bronze medal in mathematics, Ph.D. in mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Chang Cheng 1995 Ph.D. Gold Award in Electronic Engineering Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Zhu 1995 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Wang Haidong 1995 Gold Medal in Mathematics Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford, USA
Yizhou Lin 1995 Silver Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Computer Science, UCLA, USA.
Yao Yijun 1995 Silver Prize in Mathematics, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics, Paris Polytechnic University, France.
Zhang Jian 1994 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics Department of Moscow State University, Russia.
Yao Jiangang 1994 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley.
Peng Jianbo 1994 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Computer Science, new york University, USA.
Xi Chen Hai 1994 Silver Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Wang Haidong 1994 Silver Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford, USA.
Yuan 1993 Gold Medal in Mathematics Former Ph.D. student in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, was dropped out of school due to mental problems.
Yankee 199 3 Gold Medal in Mathematics Doctor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, employee of Google Company.
Yang Baozhong 1992 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Finance, Stanford University, USA
Luo Wei 1992 Gold Medal in Mathematics, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
Husmai 1992 gold medal in mathematics in new York state, USA.
The data comes from the network and may be updated.
So utilitarian, only a few years, and it is urging the Fields Prize. Isn't that a little hasty? In this case, even if the Fields Medal is awarded, it is likely to be the Fields Medal of the United States. Why? In fact, just look at Fu's experience in the other two articles in this tweet.
Is it useful to do math? Is there a future?
Mathematics is certainly useful.
For example, artificial intelligence, which is popular now, has actually been on fire several times. However, every time you encounter a bottleneck, if you don't believe it, you can read the article about neural network 1990, and then slowly return to silence. Because they met the bottleneck of mathematical theory to a great extent. Every breakthrough is either due to the sudden improvement of computing power or a small-scale breakthrough in mathematical theory. Although so many people are clamoring to learn machine learning today, give him a mathematical model and let him adjust the parameters. A group of people are blocked by the foundation of mathematics. Without strong theoretical basis and professional knowledge, tuning model parameters is not much different from playing the piano by monkeys.
Can you earn a lot of money by doing math? Is there a future?
Not exactly.
Mathematics, a basic subject, is purely theoretical and transformed into productivity and benefit. The path is long and the income is small. It is rare to see a mathematician make a lot of money because of his theory. And most mathematicians are obsessed with research and don't talk about plugs.
It is difficult from theory to practical application, depending on the environment. For example, a mathematical cornerstone of all kinds of artificial intelligence that is very popular now is statistical learning theory. The pioneer of this theory is Wapnik. There was a saying during the Cold War that he had a preliminary theory in the 1960s. He silently calculated the minimum structural risk, support vector machine, VC dimension and so on. , which laid a strong theoretical foundation for statistical learning. His mathematical foundation is the outstanding development of inequality by Petersburg School of Mathematics.
However, his achievements are locked in a safe. Later, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he went to the United States, slowly began to be valued and developed, and finally expanded the vast world.
Although the Soviet Union did not have the freedom to turn theory into practical technology, it still attached great importance to basic disciplines and was willing to give him money, sit on the bench and concentrate on research. Not all countries have the patience and measurement to turn your idea into theory, let alone practical technology.
Old Vapnik is very energetic.
Therefore, if you try your best to hold the Olympics with a utilitarian attitude, it is likely that you will draw water with a sieve. Although many parents are pushing the piano and olympiad for their children now. If their children go this way and take this career path in the future, don't jump out and stop them again, okay? I occasionally joked in the group that it is difficult for math students to produce results, earn less, lose their hair early and die early. This sentence is half a joke and half a truth. Because mathematics is a very, very brain-burning thing, many people have spent their whole lives to prove that the hypothesis of so-and-so is not valid. Or many people can't figure out why all their lives. There are also many mathematicians who died young. For example, the recent winner of the Fields Medal passed away. Lamanukin also died young, leaving a pile of notes. Although it is a survivor bias, it is really hard.
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Because I have different business relationships with MAA, the American Mathematical Society, the top mathematical training institution AOPS in the United States, and a bunch of other competition institutions (as long as I have math books published in the United States, I also have English versions imported from Russia), so I know something about the situation in the United States.
So I shared my views on how China and the United States view the Olympic Games and its subsequent supporting facilities. In fact, my opinion is clear:
Primary school olympiad is not encouraged. In fact, if you don't look at the reference Olympiad at the beginning of Xiaosheng, you can greatly limit the heat of Olympiad.
There are no restrictions on various spontaneous learning organizations. This is not an association. You can finish as you like, and you can solve problems as you like. However, any admission shall not refer to the competition results of these organizations.
Discover and encourage those talented people, and let those talented people give full play to their strengths as much as possible: make the best use of their talents and things.
Universities should be people's universities, and should give more back to the society and create a good atmosphere.
The allocation of scientific research funds should give more support and more space to those who engage in pure basic research. It is unrealistic and objective for you to ask the students of mathematics department to publish several articles a year. Instead of raising some researchers in basic science, it is better to use this money to raise a group of people who read newspapers.
God's belongs to God, and Caesar's belongs to Caesar!