Xie Yanbo is a student of the first juvenile class enrolled by 1978. According to legend, Xie Yanbo, who only has a primary school diploma, took part in the math contest of the second year of middle school and won the second place. From primary school directly across the whole middle school, 1 1 year-old entered the juvenile class of Chinese University of Science and Technology. /kloc-studied for a master's degree at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences at the age of 0/5./kloc-studied for a doctor's degree at the age of 0/8, and then went to the United States to study for a doctor's degree with the famous Anderson. But I didn't get my doctorate, and it is rumored that I may not have a good relationship with my tutor. It is understood that Xie Yanbo is currently an ordinary teacher at the University of Science and Technology of China. After years of work, he has not achieved any outstanding research results, which is far from the Nobel Prize expected by some people.
Xie Yanbo has a widely circulated photo: he is standing on a stool, explaining math problems to others in front of the blackboard. This is the general image of "prodigy" in that period. There is no denying that Xie Yanbo is brilliant, but he is not a god. At that time, there was a general shortage of educational resources. His cleverness was probably because he had more opportunities to receive a good education than many of his peers (his father was a physics teacher in medical college), and he was able to take advanced courses earlier than his peers at that time. Looking through the math test papers of the college entrance examination more than 40 years ago, we will find that those questions are much simpler than those of the present college entrance examination, which can explain to some extent why only Xie Yanbo, who graduated from primary school, won the second place in the math competition of Grade Two in senior high school.
When Xie Yanbo is hailed as a genius, he may not be a real genius. A great scientist can only be called a great scientist if he has made great achievements. What achievements has Xie Yanbo, who is regarded as a genius, made? Is it because 1 1 entered the Chinese University of Science and Technology at the age of, because he can solve advanced math problems? If this is a genius, then many such geniuses can be caught in the current Olympic math class. Although these students in the Olympic Mathematics class can't be admitted to the Chinese University of Science and Technology at the age of 1 1, they would have been prodigies 40 years ago. Are these teenagers who solve problems very smoothly expected to win the Nobel Prize?
Xie Yanbo didn't fall. Maybe what he's showing now is his true self. It is normal that he didn't win the Nobel Prize. Winning the Nobel Prize is related to intelligence, but even extremely smart people may not win the Nobel Prize. Einstein was great and clever enough that no one could find a higher scientific achievement among the scientists of the same period. However, many scientists in the same period were smarter than Einstein, including many scientists who didn't win the Nobel Prize. Winning the Nobel Prize depends not on one's intelligence, but on grasping the opportunities of the times and having suitable soil for seeds to germinate and branch. If we think that Xie Yanbo's experience is worth discussing, what we should discuss is not his "depravity", but what problems have arisen in various mechanisms of discovering, cultivating and creating convenience for talents.