Forget what you know | Jacob Barnett | TEDxTeen
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Published 2012-04-09
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Jacob Barnett is an American mathematician and child prodigy. At 8 years old, Jacob began sneaking into the back of college lectures at IUPUI. After being diagnosed with autism since the age of two and placed in his school's special ed. program, Jacob's teachers and doctors were astonished to learn he was able to teach calculus to college students.
At age nine, while playing with shapes, Jacob built a series of mathematical models that expanded Einstein's field of relativity. A professor at Princeton reviewed his work and confirmed that it was groundbreaking and could someday result in a Nobel Prize. At age 10, Jacob was formally accepted to the University as a full-time college student and went straight into a paid research position in the field of condensed matter physics. For his original work in this field, Jacob set a record, becoming the world's youngest astrophysics researcher. His paper was subsequently accepted for publication by Physical Review A, a scientific journal shared on sites such as NASA, the Smithsonian, and Harvard's webpage. Jacob's work aims to help improve the way light travels in technology.
Jacob is also CEO and founder of Wheel LLC, a business he started in his mom's garage, and is in the process of writing a book to help end "math phobia" in his generation.
Jacob's favorite pastime is playing basketball with the kids at his charity, Jacob's Place. It is a place where kids with autism are inspired every day to be their true authentic selves...just like Jacob.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
All Comments (21)
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He might be acting strange, but you have to remember that he is a nervous as fuck pre teen doing a lecture in front of a bunch of smart adults. You would probably be acting weird and uncomfortable too.
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He’s the type of kid to argue with the teacher and be right.
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To see any child this excited about what he can know and excited about telling others about it is spectacular.
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" he had to stop learning, but he didn't stop thinking" wow
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The fact that he was wearing flip flops at TED makes him 12 times cooler than the rest
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Nervous laughs and voice cracks... I freaking love this kid
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This kid proves that the brain is capable of exceptional greatness if we push it.
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This boy high on math
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His brain is working faster than he can say it verbally. Which is why he sounds so excited and how he is talking. Kinda cute actually.
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This guy's internal clock is running 100 times faster than everyone else and I love it.
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It’s amazing that he was able to get up on stage and tell everyone about this. A lot of times intellectually advanced people with a spectrum disorder, the difficulties that comes with the disorder can hold them back from showing who they are and what they know. The fact that he can express this productively is really good for him.
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It's so weird hearing voice cracks while listening to someone talk about physics. lol
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he's so efficient w his time he doesn't even wear shoes w laces.
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This is one of the best TEDX I have heard, this kid is indirectly talking about how the educational system is all wrong, we were taught to memorize, to get good grades, but the didn't encouraged us to think by ourselves and to use knowledge to create new knowledge, congratulations kid 👍🏾
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Genius has limits, creativity is infinite. Being a child of a creator, being able to create is an incredible experience.
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Can't help but think if it wasn't for society, there would be a lot more Jacob Barnetts. He's a prime example of how autistic children should be nurtured in every way possible to achieving greatness. It should be people with this level of IQ that should be world leaders, the understanding they have for complexity is something we shouldn't be viewing as a flaw - Not speaking in his case, but as a whole, the autistic spectrum does not get enough praise it deserves, in fact it gets the opposite.
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"Don't learn anything for 24 hours" - Way ahead of you.
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He is a true genius. Nowadays, people just brag about SAT scores.
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This guy is now 25 and i just watched a documentary about his family. It's crazy, apparently his mother was very abusive and something is wrong with his father also. He now lives in his basement, and looks broken as a person, its sad to see. If anyone is curious about documentary it is: The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. Crazy story
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"so why are circles important? They're the shape of cookies" Good answer child
