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Daniel Tammet Quotes
Daniel Tammet Quotes
Daniel Tammet
English
Writer
Born:
Jan 31
,
1979
Experience
Life
Me
People
Think
You
Related authors:
Arthur C. Clarke
D. H. Lawrence
Douglas Adams
Gilbert K. Chesterton
John Ruskin
Ricky Gervais
Rudyard Kipling
Thomas Paine
I know from my own experience that there is much more to 'intelligence' than an IQ number. In fact, I hesitate to believe that any system could really reflect the complexity and uniqueness of one person's mind, or meaningfully describe the nature of his or her potential.
Daniel Tammet
Nature
Experience
Intelligence
Mind
Reflect
Own
Believe
Hesitate
System
Complexity
My Own
More
Potential
Fact
Could
Know
His
Than
Person
Any
In Fact
Meaningfully
Much
Really
Describe
Uniqueness
Her
Number
I consider social skills a bit like learning a language. I've been practising it for so long over so many years I've almost lost my accent.
Daniel Tammet
Learning
Language
Long
Lost
Consider
Bit
Almost
Over
Like
Accent
Practising
Been
Years
So Many Years
Social
Skills
Many
Social Skills
I would play with numbers in a way that other kids would play with their friends.
Daniel Tammet
Other
Other Kids
Way
Kids
Would
Friends
Play
Numbers
I think if I ever stopped pushing myself, I would revert quickly to quite repetitive, restrictive behaviour. But in pushing myself and concentrating on what I can do, I think I can contribute to society. And that gives me the desire to keep pushing, to see what I'm capable of. The thing to do is not to stop.
Daniel Tammet
Myself
Me
Think
Society
Would
See
Restrictive
Gives
Pushing
Concentrating
Revert
Repetitive
Quickly
Contribute
Behaviour
Quite
Stop
Stopped
Capable
Keep
Ever
Thing
Desire
37 is a lumpy number, a bit like porridge. Six is very small and dark and cold, and whenever I was little trying to understand what sadness is I would imagine myself inside a number six and having that experience of cold and darkness. Similarly, number four is a shy number.
Daniel Tammet
Myself
Experience
Dark
Darkness
Sadness
Cold
Bit
Would
Inside
Similarly
Having
Small
Like
Understand
Very
Trying
Six
Whenever
Little
Four
Shy
Number
Imagine
In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me, which is why as a young child I thought of them as my 'friends.'
Daniel Tammet
Me
Words
Mind
Thought
Young
Alive
More
Color
Come
Friends
Texture
Than
Child
Form
Young Child
Which
Them
Far
Page
Why
Ink
Numbers
When I achieved the European record for reciting pi in 2004, this captured the imagination of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in Cambridge, and he finally diagnosed me with Asperger's that year.
Daniel Tammet
Me
Year
Imagination
Reciting
Finally
Record
Simon
He
Diagnosed
Cambridge
Achieved
European
Captured
Professor
I was incredibly lucky that my first book found a large and loyal readership. It changed my life - from being a very withdrawn adult to living in Paris as a full-time writer. It has also given me enormous confidence.
Daniel Tammet
Life
Me
Confidence
Book
My Life
First
Living
Enormous
Changed
Incredibly
Given
Paris
Writer
Adult
Also
Withdrawn
Readership
Very
Being
Loyal
Full-Time
Large
Lucky
Found
Aesthetics - rather than reason - shapes our thought processes. First comes aesthetics, then logic. 'Thinking in Numbers' is not about an attempt to impress the reader but to include the reader, draw the reader in, by explaining my experiences - the beauty I feel in a prime number, for example.
Daniel Tammet
Thought
Example
First
Beauty
Impress
Thinking
Our
Draw
Logic
About
Rather
Shapes
Attempt
Feel
Prime
For Example
Reader
Aesthetic
Than
Experiences
Processes
Explaining
Then
Reason
Include
Number
Numbers
I recited Pi to 22,514 decimal points in five hours and nine minutes. I was able to do this because of weeks of study, aided by the unusual synaesthesic way my mind perceives numbers as complex multidimensional coloured and textured shapes.
Daniel Tammet
Mind
Aided
Nine
Way
Complex
Able
Minutes
Weeks
Points
Shapes
Coloured
Study
Hours
Unusual
Because
Five
Numbers
I have never played the lottery in my life and never will. Voltaire described lotteries as a tax on stupidity. More specifically, I think, on innumeracy.
Daniel Tammet
Life
Stupidity
Will
My Life
Think
More
Never
Voltaire
Lottery
Tax
Specifically
Played
Someone who copies a Van Gogh does not therefore become Van Gogh, and the same would go for Mozart or anyone else who contributed something that was original. Certainly in the way that I described visualizing numbers in abstract, meaningful shapes.
Daniel Tammet
Become
Else
Way
Van
Van Gogh
Would
Visualizing
Someone
Something
Shapes
Abstract
Does
Go
Same
Gogh
Anyone
Anyone Else
Mozart
Meaningful
Certainly
Who
Original
Therefore
Copies
Numbers
Even the greatest mathematicians, the ones that we would put into our mythology of great mathematicians, had to do a great deal of leg work in order to get to the solution in the end.
Daniel Tammet
Work
Great
Great Deal
Our
Would
Solution
Had
Mythology
Put
Deal
Greatest
Mathematicians
End
Leg
Get
Order
In The End
Even
I'm very comfortable with the idea of there being late bloomers, and for me, of course, there's no difficulty at all in the way that I think of talent and achievement and so on.
Daniel Tammet
Me
Achievement
Think
Difficulty
Late
Way
Idea
Talent
Course
Comfortable
Very
Being
From 'Embracing the Wide Sky', I went to the States, to Canada and to different parts of Europe as well. I gave interviews in several languages.
Daniel Tammet
Sky
Gave
Interviews
Several
States
Embracing
Well
Parts
Canada
Different
Different Parts
Languages
Europe
Wide
Life is going to be complex, and the only way we're able navigate our way through it at all is by living as best we can and absorbing those experiences and somehow making intuitive responses in future situations that resemble them in some way.
Daniel Tammet
Life
Future
Best
Living
Our
Way
Complex
Those
Responses
Able
Intuitive
Some
Somehow
Only
Through
Absorb
Making
Going
Situations
Experiences
Them
Navigate
Resemble
I'm not sure I'm the only savant with high IQ or with an above average IQ. Again, it may just be that we don't know very many of the others.
Daniel Tammet
Just Be
Others
High
Above
Only
Know
Sure
Very
May
Just
Again
Average
Many
Squaring numbers is a symmetrical process that I like very much. And when I divide one number by another, say, 13 divided by 97, I see a spiral rotating downwards in larger and larger loops that seem to warp and curve. The shapes coalesce into the right number. I never write anything down.
Daniel Tammet
Down
Say
See
Spiral
Seem
Divide
Divided
Write
Shapes
Never
Like
Another
Loops
Very
Anything
Curve
Process
Much
Warp
Rotating
Larger
Right
Number
Symmetrical
Numbers
Growing up, I would have to watch the other children and learn from my mistakes. I would have to push myself to overcome the things most people don't have to think about. Brushing my teeth was very difficult because of the noise of the brush.
Daniel Tammet
Myself
Noise
People
Overcome
Mistakes
Difficult
Think
Other
Teeth
Would
About
Brush
Brushing
Push
Most
Learn
Because
Up
Very
Children
Growing
Growing Up
Things
Watch
I certainly have routines in my day-to-day life that are important to me and still give me feelings of security and control, but the capacity to break out of them every so often as I travel has given me a second wind.
Daniel Tammet
Life
Me
Travel
Wind
Feelings
Important
Control
Every
Out
Security
Give
Give Me
Given
Day-To-Day
Day-To-Day Life
Still
Often
Break
Them
Capacity
Certainly
Routines
Second
I love music. I have a fondness for Chopin, and I very much like his 'Raindrop Prelude.'
Daniel Tammet
Love
Music
Fondness
Like
His
Very
Much
Prelude
Chopin
One of the lines from my books is about having respect for different minds, and if I had to have an epitaph at this point in my life, that would be it.
Daniel Tammet
Life
Respect
My Life
Minds
Books
Would
Would-Be
About
Having
Point
Had
Lines
Different
Epitaph
I found maths very easy, but I still enjoyed discovering things. You have to have the necessary information. For example, what's the difference between the mean and the median? Probability fascinated me. You have to think very carefully about things, which is the way my mind works anyway.
Daniel Tammet
Me
You
Mind
Example
Think
Carefully
Way
Easy
About
Between
For Example
Still
Discovering
Maths
Very
Probability
Difference
Information
Anyway
Which
Mean
Fascinated
Works
Found
Median
Enjoyed
Things
Necessary
If when we are taught English we are just taught the rules of grammar, it would take all our love of our language away from us. What makes us love a subject like English is when we learn all these fantastic stories. Feeding the imagination is what makes a subject come alive.
Daniel Tammet
Love
Language
Imagination
Our
Our Love
Rules
Alive
Would
Take
Feeding
Come
Like
Learn
Makes
Subject
Just
Taught
Stories
Grammar
Fantastic
Us
English
Away
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