Talk:Daniel Tammet

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Removed "and enjoys nothing more than driving a good tee shot or sinking a long putt." That seemed less encylopedic and more colloquial than necessary. Istvan 02:58, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

             I agree --ThisDude415

Contents 1 Gay? 2 List 3 Language skills 4 Surname 5 Just a silly comment, but... 6 Autistic? 7 Mental calculator 8 Spanish 9 Birthdate

[edit] Gay?

I noticed he's on a list of gay/bisexual people, but his sexual orientation was not mentioned in the article. I plan to remove him unless someone can verify this. --jp3z 00:49, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, according to the first external link which says:

"He met the great love of his life, a software engineer called Neil, online. It began, as these things do, with emailed pictures, but ended up with a face-to-face meeting. "Because I can't drive, Neil offered to pick me up at my parents' house, and drive me back to his house in Kent. He was silent all the way back."

Apparently he is homosexual. Should we add that? 67.84.82.127 22:18, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

It's very intriguing that he is also gay! 75.24.193.39 21:59, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List

We should really compile a list of savants for reference. I noticed when I searched for "savant" it only memtioned the rain man. Chickenofbristol 00:02, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Language skills

I'm fairly sure I could learn sufficient Icelandic in one week to be basically conversational, and I'm in no way exceptional. In fact, I suspect many people would learn more quickly than I could; many people in my field (historical linguistics) have to learn a new language in a short amount of time to use certain scholarly materials not available in English. Therefore, I favour removing the comment about Icelandic. CRCulver 04:29, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

The video The Brain Man stated that Icelandic is a very difficult language and that his teacher was exceptionally suprised with how well he did. It showed him speaking with near-fluency that was supposedly recorder the week after he started learning Icelandic. It is noteworth. ~ Oni Lukos _ct 00:34, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Well I admire you CRCulver and this is very good, for the rest of us , learning a language in a 'week' is amazing and very worth retaining in the article.--Jondel 00:16, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm Icelandic and I saw the interview. It was live and he did respond to questions. - mubli

The issue isn't whether he responded to questions. What matters is what kind of questions he was presented and what kind of answers he gave. There's a world of difference between "What is the meaning of life?" and "What color is an apple?". As a language learner who aspires to be a polyglot, I do think his feat is impressive. But it would still be good to know how impressive. I'd like to see a translation of the interview into English, since at least it'd give the general idea. - furrykef (Talk at me) 15:23, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

The Brainman documentary (which can be found on youtube as "Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain") includes an excerpt from the actual translated Icelandic interview. There non-Icelandic speakers can see that the subject matter is fairly complex and Icelanders will see how well he applies Icelandic grammar, which is considerably more complex than English. He even manages to get humour in there that translates, which in itself in no mean feat. SHOlafsson 18:25, 18 February 2007

While Icelandic may be more difficult compared to, say, Spanish ... I don't know why we are calling it "one of the hardest languages to learn", when it is not that hard. Linking to Internet polls does not seem the best way to judge this. --65.30.76.141 20:25, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

The polls are not to prove that Icelandic is hard or easy, it is to show Icelandic is "popularly perceived" as being hard (which is really common knowledge that many people think it is hard - if its true or not is irrelevant and besides the point). Adding this adds context and meaning to the section, it explains why they choose Icelandic, and not Spanish. -- Stbalbach 20:42, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

It might be better to cite their stated goals/reasoning for choosing Icelandic. Whether or not they're right about public perception doesn't really matter. --66.41.102.194 04:07, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

It's cited the 60-min episode mentions it in the same context written here. -- Stbalbach 23:55, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

That's ridiculous! This was a news program, the choice of Icelandic seems to be predicated on the fact that not many people speak it relative to other European languages and the ease of access of the television show for the interview. I believe that adding a non-factual statement based on common stereotype only further perpetuates the stereotype and does not add context. The news program erroneously pegged Icelandic as a hard language to learn (they are not linguistics and it is an entertainment program), let us not propagate this. If anything it would be worth noting that Icelandic is not commonly spoken outside of Iceland, ergo we can assume the average person would not have any passive experience with it. We can be really confusing and state "Icelandic is not that difficult to learn with someone of his linguistic background, but the producers chose it because of their inexperience in the field and the fact that it unlikely he previously had learned Icelandic and that Aboriginal talk shows are in short demand" ... as it is I think we should let it stand on its own and let the reader judge how impressive the feat is without biasing them. --65.30.76.141 21:20, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Surname

The article states that he chose Tammet as his surname. If you know the original, please include it. ◄ИΞШSΜΛЯΞ► 13:29, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe his original surname is "Paul", but I could be mistaken. ~ Oni Lukos _ct 14:11, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

paul what? i'll be the first to voice an interest in the training/upbringing & family line of this savant.

His original name is Daniel Corney. In 2000 he competed in the World Memory Championships in London and finished in 4th place: http://www.msoworld.com/brain/mental/_mso4memorypopup.html Curiously he won the names and faces event, yet in the 60 minutes documentary he tells the interviewer that he will not remember their face after the interview.

[edit] Just a silly comment, but...

I really wish I could experience what his mind works like. To see numbers and words and other stimuli as meshes of color that simply include information is pretty amazing. Manfrin 09:06, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Befriend the psilocybe. ◄ИΞШSΜΛЯΞ► 00:37, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Read up on synaesthesia--Jondel 00:37, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Autistic?

It says he is but that it doesn't affect social interaction, yet the article on autism says that part of the definition of autism is that it affects social interaction Mernst 01:35, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Quite simply, he got lucky. Autism doesn't exactly hit the same way in everyone, and he was lucky enough not to be affected socially. ~ Oni Lukos _ct 02:17, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Has he been clinically diagnosed with autism? Obviously he is brilliant, but where is the evidence he is autistic. Is this merely speculative because he has abilities attributed to people who are otherwise handicapped? I can't find anywhere outside of wikipedia that claims he is autistic.

Autistic people don't like to interact, they can't live alone, they ussually can't compute if lets say some item, candy, a meal is expensive or not. They can 't ussualy estimate if they buy something, there will be change left over. They go berserk when things are not the way they are or changed a little. Is he like that?--Jondel 00:22, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

JOndel, that is very narrow minded and simply quite wrong... it sounds like you got most of your information from rain man... these behaviours you have mentioned can be true in some autistics, but it is important to keep a very open definition when speaking of autistics in general... there is a HUGE diversity.

Not at all. According to the Science Channel special, he exhibited autistic behaviour as a small child but eventually outgrew it. He still gets a little uneasy in certain situations, such as strolls through big cities (the skyscrapers cause his mind to project a lot of 9's, which he says "can be intimidating"). Prior to learning about this remarkable man, I didn't know that autism could be outgrown.

People with handicaps learn how to MANAGE their problems, which may look like they have outgrown them, but they are still there. Deaf people learn to lip read. If they become good at it, it still does not mean they can hear! There's no luck in it - just real hard work. I should know, I have my own handicap and it is hard work every day, but it will never stop me trying to do what I want to!! Geoff2DoThat 10:37, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Well then, by definition, he now has Asperger Syndrome, not Autism, right? --Farry 19:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Asperger's is definitely on the Autism spectrum... ~ Oni Lukos _ct 22:51, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

uh, I apologize if anyone was slighted or offended. Well, how would autism be defined? Concerning Daniel Tammet himself , the truth is I have great admiration for him and his language and other mental skills.--Jondel 20:54, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

• On 60 Minutes they said it was it Asperger's Syndrome. -LtNOWIS 14:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

How could we be asking whether or not he is autistic, of course he is. All idiot savants are autistic, although not all autistic people are idiot savants. It is not possible to have as great brain power as he has and not have some serious disabilities. NikolaiLobachevsky 00:35, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

He taught himself how to interact. He said in the 60 minutes interview that as a child he was very autistic but learned how function "normally" because he had a big family and felt forced to "learn" how to interact and socialize and so on. He still displays certain elements of autisms such as compulsivity, slight agoraphobia or social disorder and certain brain deficiencies. As he mentioned he can only remember details but cannot remember the whole. This is truly a astonishing individual not only for talents but because he can describe basically "how autism works". Instead of running tests he can straight out tell us what his cognitive deficits and abilities are.24.203.165.168 21:54, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

It's difficult to say his mental condition. Obviously, he has a great deal of mathematical skill, but from interviews and such, it is clear that he does not show autistic symptoms, or at least he shows very little. Wikipedians who edit this article need to make sure that he is diagnosed autistic, not just assume that he is. I realize that the 60 minutes interview provides a great deal of information, however, we need more than just that source. We need to be sure of our facts when writing any article, especially one about a living person. Thunderlord 23:11, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mental calculator

Is he one? I wish there was more mention.--Jondel 00:23, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

What makes him unique in some regard is that he says that he's not actually calculating, he's just getting the answer. ~ Oni Lukos _ct 00:26, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish

He visualizes numbers. He hates it when scientists feed him serialized digits that look like pi but are not exactly pi.

If he learns to speak the Spanish language as spoken in Spain, would he be very upset to speak with people from South America? Would he be more angry to speak with an inexperienced Spanish student? "I HATE YOUR BLOODY SPANISH! SHUT UP! YOUR SPANISH LOOKS UGLY!" -- Toytoy 03:06, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Grow up, there is nothing to suggest that his empathy with numbers extends to languages. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.248.25.33 (talk) 09:01, 19 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Birthdate

Regarding WP:BLP#Privacy_of_birthdays .. Tammet is a public and famous person, he has had film documentaries and has published his personal memoirs... His birthday is even included in the Guardian article which has already been linked as a source in the article. He is using fame and notoriety for personal gain and benefit, he has purposefully disclosed personal information to the public in his memoirs. -- Stbalbach 17:30, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

i'm in partial agreement with your position. somewhere i saw an image of his passporte in an article also. i'm not all that convinced about his privacy being violated. --emerson7 | Talk 17:46, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

actually, i found it. it's in the five-tv piece at 1 min 22 seconds into to video, showing his passporte and date of birth. whatever privacy he once may have had was surrendered with that shot. --emerson7 | Talk 17:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)