The guy is just implausibly smart! And he's a Math professor at UCLA, ... Here she looks at a few of the books he read aged 8 or thereabout. The introduction to that book on logic reminded me of Lewis Carroll's The Game of Logic which was published in 1886, and contains these verses in the frontispiece: To my Child-friend. I charm in vain; for never again, All keenly as my glance I bend, Will Memory, goddess coy, Embody for my joy Departed days, nor let me gaze On thee, my fairy friend! Yet could thy face, in mystic grace, A moment smile on me, 'twould send Far-darting rays of light From Heaven athwart the night, By which to read in very deed Thy spirit, sweetest friend! So may the stream of Life's long dream Flow gently onward to its end, With many a floweret gay, Adown its willowy way: May no sigh vex, no care perplex, My loving little friend! I was several years older than Terence Tao is now when I discovered that book for the first time