Ryan Alweiss is a happy Jersey boy: He recently won a gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Thailand — the first American to capture the honor since 1991. He did it by writing an elegant three-page proof that read more like a philosophical treatise than the solution to a math problem. OK, Karin, that’s great, you may be thinking, but this is a post devoted to writing. Not to worry — keep going. It’s how Ryan solved the problem that offers us some valuable insights into the creative process:
His solution was elegant and concise: As Ronald Graham, a math professor at UC-San Diego, puts it: “If it takes you eight pages of hard calculations to solve a problem, you’re probably on the wrong track. The problems require a little more pure insight and brilliance, flashes of ‘Wow!’ And very elegant solutions count a little bit more.”
He was intensely focused: It wasn’t just intelligence and talent that won Ryan the gold. When he started out as a freshman in high school, his skills were on a par with four other students, according to his math teacher. What separated Ryan from his classmates? Hard work and focus. While the other students lost interest, Ryan kept searching out increasingly challenging problems. “The difference was he never stopped. It takes practice and time and persistence,” his math teacher noted.
He showed endurance and mental toughness: Along with drive and focus, the ability to dig deep and bounce back from setbacks all helped Ryan rise to the top ranks of math competitions. At one two-day event, he fell behind, but then stick-to-it-iveness and mental toughness kicked in. He bounced back the second day after a restorative 10 hours of sleep (now that’s a relaxed kid!) and walked away with gold.
Here’s what Ryan had to say about his Olympic win: “An elegant solution is an extremely hard problem with a short solution that’s very hard to come up with. You read it and you go, ‘Wow, this is just completely amazing.’ I think this is a pretty universal human experience.”
To my mind, as authors, we’re also on the hunt for elegant solutions that will inspire our readers to say, “Wow, this is just completely amazing.” Write on!