>Is it possible that Ramanujan would not have been so successful had he followed the standard learning path?
Sure, it's possible. But there's always a problem when you teach yourself something, no matter how good at it you are, in that you don't know what you don't know.
Even if you're a genius and an autodidact, sometimes a little direction, a little mentoring, a little collaboration goes a long way in moving your understanding down the field.
Here's the biggest problem with a lack of education as far as math goes. How much time did he spend re-inventing the wheel because he didn't know which wheels had been invented? And he always did it better and faster than anyone else would have, or did? Probably not. His genius may have minimized the handicap of a lack of education. I somehow doubt that lack of an education was a benefit to him. Once he got into academia though through his recognized genius he probably learned a lot of things from a lot of people to try and fill in whatever gaps in his understanding he may have had. I very much doubt he lamented how learning things from experienced peers crippled his own genius...
No one is such a genius that they're an island unto themselves and no one and nothing any other human being has done matters. That type of genius is fantasy for Hollywood, not reality.
No matter who we are, or the level of our genius. We all stand on the shoulders of giants who came before.
> Even if you're a genius and an autodidact, sometimes a little direction, a little mentoring, a little collaboration goes a long way in moving your understanding down the field.
Sometimes this might bind you for the rest of your life to the epicycles of your era.
Sure, it's possible. But there's always a problem when you teach yourself something, no matter how good at it you are, in that you don't know what you don't know.
Even if you're a genius and an autodidact, sometimes a little direction, a little mentoring, a little collaboration goes a long way in moving your understanding down the field.
Here's the biggest problem with a lack of education as far as math goes. How much time did he spend re-inventing the wheel because he didn't know which wheels had been invented? And he always did it better and faster than anyone else would have, or did? Probably not. His genius may have minimized the handicap of a lack of education. I somehow doubt that lack of an education was a benefit to him. Once he got into academia though through his recognized genius he probably learned a lot of things from a lot of people to try and fill in whatever gaps in his understanding he may have had. I very much doubt he lamented how learning things from experienced peers crippled his own genius...
No one is such a genius that they're an island unto themselves and no one and nothing any other human being has done matters. That type of genius is fantasy for Hollywood, not reality.
No matter who we are, or the level of our genius. We all stand on the shoulders of giants who came before.