Translator: Deion Payne Reviewer: Michele Gianella
I brought two dice with me:
one is a common die with six faces, numbered one to six.
The other is a die with ten faces.
If I cast it, there's equal chance for any number from one to ten.
Now let's play:
you throw the die with ten faces, I throw the one with six.
You win this game if you get a number equal to or higher than mine.
Seven to five! Well done, you won the game!
Winning with the ten faces die is easier, but tell me, approximately:
what is your probability of winning this game?
One possible approach is based on experience.
Let me explain:
I can repeatedly throw the dice and take note of every win.
After 100 throws,
I would realise I'm winning about seven or eight times every game.
With a bit of patience, and 1000 throws,
I would realise that the probability of winning is near 75%.
As the number of throws increases,
my estimate, based on the average of wins, becomes more precise.
This, in addition to being intuitive, is guaranteed by the law of large numbers.
Then we could throw the dice 1,000 times, with a computer, if you find it boring.
Your laptop should be able to throw about 100 million dice in just a second.
This type of approach to solve a mathematical problem,
is called the "Monte Carlo method,"
which is the ability of a computer to simulate the randomness.
It is a very powerful method.
We can simulate a throw of dice, but also the behaviour of a fluid,
the evolution of a colony of bacteria, the spread of an epidemic
or even the trend of whole financial systems.
To answer the game of the dice,
we didn't need any mathematics.
A pure mathematician
would deem Monte Carlo methods not really elegant,
as if we had abused of computer's brute force.
It truly seems to me a form of magic!
And for this, four years ago
I began my PhD in "Monte Carlo methods"
at the University of Warwick, in England.
Now I'll put the dice into my pocket.
Today I don't want to talk to you about maths.
I want to tell you a chapter of my personal story.
Sadly, the magic of Monte Carlo methods, which have really captured me,
after the first week of my doctorate, had already gone completely!
The work environment, at Warwick, is outstanding:
I have my own office, a super computer, seminars, conferences throughout the day
and the two professors that follow me
are of an incomparable intellect, competence and kindness!
But the doctorate isn't for everyone.
The doctorate is extremely difficult, technical, often frustrating,
since it is based on innovative research.
Behind every winning idea there are 10, 100 failed attempts.
The doctorate can be a solitary road.
I spend most of my time alone,
in front of the computer or a statistical article.
To overcome these obstacles, you need a very strong passion,
which I didn't have!
"Minds in Movement" couldn't be more appropriate a theme
for a mathematician that studies overseas:
but I can guarantee you, in that moment, my mind was paralysed!
Few months after the beginning of my PhD, I began to teach.
I was so nervous!
Think of it: teaching math, in English!
For the first 40-minute lesson, I prepared for more than two weeks!
But, with that first lesson, a fire lit inside of me,
of determination, motivation, purpose, everything which I was missing before!
And why?
Why all that exhilaration?
I wasn't interested in answering this question.
I felt so regenerated, I wanted to keep this excitement!
And so, I threw myself straight into it.
I began to live lesson by lesson.
A sound preparation wasn't enough for me,
I wanted to compel my students,
involve them, surprise them and make them have fun!
I tried to use every opportunity!
I got a diploma in university teaching,
I moved from teaching first-year students for two hours
to more than eight hours of teaching students in advanced courses.
The heavier the workload,
the more efficient, tenacious and determined I became.
And it wasn't really a work, for me!
Every aspect of teaching is fulfilling for me.
Preparing the lesson is a creative, stimulating process, a form of art.
I even like correcting homework!
Reading the students' ideas, right or wrong,
bring a continuous learning!
And then, well, there's a time for performance!
In class I become an actor and the room is my stage.
The lesson is my show.
The students' gratitude fully paid back my effort!
And I was learning from them, as much as they were learning from me!
During my third year, a solid recognition came.
The University of Warwick gave me the award
for excellence in teaching as a young researcher.
During my doctorate, I got many pleasures,
but this resounded within me in a different way!
Everything was so natural, wonderful, compelling.
In a nutshell, I experienced something that also works on a large scale:
the most authentic and genuine way to reach success and fulfillment
is to bring our passions to fruition.
At that point, I looked back at everything that had happened
in such a short time, up to reaching that question
of the first class, do you remember?
Why? What is the reason for all this excitement?
That fire, that surge of determination?
The answer which I gave myself is inherent to my way of being
and in the values I believe in,
in the values we all believe in!
It is the culture of sharing!
There are some objects or some goods, in an abstract sense,
whose value increases, not decreases, the more they're shared.
A concert, this TEDx event,
a song, a book, a trip, or an experience, an opinion,
even a moment of silence!
A passion, a talent, happiness!
Among these goods, knowledge is also there.
I had found the value, the passion for knowledge,
in sharing knowledge!
And my mind set into motion
right when I tried to move my students' minds!
In England it was a fantastic experience!
Now I am writing my PhD thesis and I hope to finish over the next months.
It is almost the moment to decide my next step.
As you now understand, I'm a fond teacher.
But university is not the only place
where mathematics and communication meet
to give life to this magic of sharing knowledge.
But we'll see!
I have told you this chapter of my story
just because I think, what I learned is shareable.
Monte Carlo methods aside, the fact of taking a path
that then doesn't turn out to be what we first believed
or finding fulfillment in unexpected paths!
And then, sure, passion as a catalyst of our talents.
And the culture of sharing.
There is one last thing that I want to share with you,
And in order to do it, I invite you to a lesson!
It is a reherseal lesson for a finance exam.
More than 100 students are in the room.
I enter in a good mood, I head to the desk
place my microphone properly and bring out my three coloured pens.
On the hour, I clear my voice.
There's already silence.
I explain, the training I prepared
will allow us to pass all the key points of the course.
A girl in the front row
asks to me some clue on the questions on the exam.
I hadn't seen the exam, but I spent Saturday night
reviewing exams of the past five years,
I put all they can expect on an outline.
They can have it at the end of the lesson.
Another boy, a little behind, asks me
where he can find other exercises to rehearse with.
Yes, we had little time to train,
but there's a lot of material online
and I wrote where to find it on the back of the outline!
They are satisfied, and the show begins!
I write on the board, but often I turn to them,
to ask how to proceed.
Every point of practice recalls an element of the theory
which we all cover together.
Someone asks a spot on, very difficult question,
but I spent Sunday on their textbook,
I am well prepared, I get by.
I joke with them to give them a break
and the hourly lesson flies by!
I wish them good luck for the exam.
A group of students stops, someone asks for clarification,
but majority are asking only for reassurance.
One last student gets near me.
I smile at him.
He hesitates to talk, a little strange, maybe he is looking for the right words.
Finally, he finds the courage only to say to me:
"Pier, I just want to say thank you!
Because no one else does what you do for us!"
I stay alone in the room, and I have a huge grin
and a heart even bigger!
And I think, maybe that's my place in the world!
So, I want to tell you this: mind and heart are deeply connected.
And for this reason, when the mind is moving
your heart is also racing within your chest!
They are mind and heart in movement!
Thank you!
(Applause)