Dwarkesh Patel

Mercury just keeps adding new features like this.

Go to mercury.com to check it out.

Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank.

Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column NA, members FDIC.

You have to learn about new fields, not only very rapidly, but deeply enough to contribute to the frontier.

So in some sense, you're also one of the world's greatest autodidacts.

What is your process of learning about a new subfield in math?

What does that look like?

Yeah.

Is it, if like civilization could from first principles decide how to use Terry Tao's time?

You know, it's like a limited resource.

What is the biggest diff between, if the veal of ignorance got to decide how to use Terry Tao's time versus what it does now?

So this podcast wouldn't be happening.

I'm very curious when you expect AIs that can actually do frontier math better, at least as well as the best human mathematicians.

You'll just go on all the podcasts after.

I take your point.

But on the question of, well, when is most mathematical progress, almost all mathematical progress happening by AI?

So if you find out, oh, this year a millennium price problem has been solved, you would put a 95% odds that an AI did it autonomously.

Surely there will be such a year.

What is your advice to somebody who would consider a career in math or is early in a career in math?