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Can we list all first class mathematicians who were early learners ? I am 10 years old and want to become a top mathematician. I think I am a top mathematician.

I like algebraic combinatorics and in particular representation theory.

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 What have you read on algebraic combinatorics and representation theory? This should be community wiki, and you should probably remove references to your age and thinking of yourself as a top mathematician. Wanting to be one eventually is fine, a fine goal in some ways, but please stick with the question that you want asked. – Michael Hoffman Nov 1 2009 at 2:53
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 I don't think such stories are meaningful to disseminate. While they are interesting case studies, they only discourage people who think they have to be prodigies to do mathematics. Ultimately idolizing prodigies only hurts the mathematical community as a whole. – Qiaochu Yuan Nov 1 2009 at 3:06
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 I hate to question your sincerity but -- you are 10 and you understand representation theory? I've known some extremely advanced prodigies, and this strikes me as implausible. – David Speyer Nov 1 2009 at 3:16
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 Research mathematics is a marathon, not a sprint. Early achievements are fine to have, of course, but trust me, they're not as useful for actually doing cutting-edge mathematics as one might think. You'll see this when you first encounter a true maths problem - one that can't be solved merely by cleverness or adapting a known method, but requires patience, understanding, and hard work, not to mention a healthy dash of humility and skepticism in one's own abilities... – Terry Tao Nov 1 2009 at 5:07
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 Dominik, you haven't presented a shred of hard evidence (like the title for an upcoming journal paper) that you are who you say you are. And, yet, a number of serious mathematicians have taken the time to advise you. At least feign some humility. A clever person would also realize the future career consequences for pushing people away like this on such a public forum. – Mensen Nov 1 2009 at 11:29
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closed as not a real question by Scott Morrison♦ Nov 1 2009 at 6:02

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