Today I'm speaking to 21 year old Neelakantha Bhanu, who won the gold medal for
India at the 2020 Mind Sports Olympiad, and he holds a few world records for being the world's
fastest human calculator.
Toby: I think we first got in contact with each other after I made a video about Shakuntala Devi, from
India, and she previously I think, held this record for you know, Fastest Human Calculator.
And yeah, I'm wondering, have you beaten her record? And if so, what was that record?
Bhanu: Shakuntala Devi was, let's say, one of the first mathemagicians if I have to put it this way,
who has established math as a performance act, which is that going out on stages, making people
clap, making people enjoy the art of, let's say, solving questions in front of them.
She held a lot of world records. But there's this one specific world record,
which is called the Fastest Human Calculator record, where one gets to add a number to itself as quickly as possible.
If it's a two digit number, if I have to put it this way, one has to do the multiples of it very quickly, and say the answers out.
So if I start with 28, it goes 28, 56, 84, 112, 140, 168, and so on, so on.
So the record is to do as many times in 15 seconds.
So these records were once held by her, Mr. Scott Flansburgh from the United States, and that's the
record which I've broken a couple of years ago, in racing past and doing it for 42 times in 15 seconds.
I've seen some videos of it done, and yeah, I find it really impressive.
And in fact, when I first read the story of Shakuntala, and then heard your story as well,
My initial thoughts, and maybe these are the thoughts of many people, it's like; wow, that is such a
special talent. And those people seem so different to me.
Because, you know, I feel like I could never do that and I think many people maybe feel the same.
I wonder if you could answer you know, is there something special about you guys who can do this?
Bhanu: I personally do not think that this is a feat or a feature which can be achieved by being
gifted, or being let's say naturally innately talented. Because of one sure reason that
everyone's born with the same, let's say mathematical, what do we say? raw materials?
It’s just about how you train it. And my question again, which again, I think I'll do more as we go,
which is to compare it, compare math with being sport is that if one wants a ripped body with a
tight six pack, is it really possible for everyone? Yes. But it does take the effort, which
is to train, to diet, do a bunch of stuff.
Toby: Yeah. So it sounds like you're saying it takes, you know, the willingness and the
motivation to want to do this, and also a lot of hard work. Yeah, I guess training like any classic
olympian for for any other sport, I guess. So you know, I'd be curious to know, when you were
training for this, what was your sort of daily routine? How did you find the time to do this kind
of study?
Bhanu: So I mean, my journey in mental calculation started when I was very young, very, very young.
So I actually met with an accident when I was five, when I was bedridden for an entire year.
That has nothing to do with my calculation abilities. But at that point of time, I picked up
puzzles and calculations as a way which is, be it magic squares, be it a bunch of other stuff, which
we genuinely, let's say, see in our daily routine, right? So I mean, this was the point of time where
I sort of picked and started falling in love with what puzzles and math and numbers and stuff are. I
fumbled on to, let's say, taking mental calculation as something which I was interested in
and started going for regional championships, and I won the regionals, nationals and the
international championships in the span of three years. Directly, I was the international champion
in speed calculation under the age of 20 years, by the time I was 13. That was in Singapore. My
routine when I did practice for this was I used to go to school, come back around 4pm in the evening,
and then sort of work because I mean, at the end of the day, I would consider mental math to be a
sport, which again, gives it a value of entertainment, right? So I mean, for me, it never
was that; okay, sit in front of the paper, solve this exam. It was about give this attempt, try
doing this better, play better. So it's the kind of satisfaction or the sense of achievement you
get when you get your soccer balls swing in the air and that's pretty much what what drove me
forward. I used to practice around six to seven hours a day, consistently for three to four years.
Today, I don't practice as much, but I still make it a point that I'm active for at least one, one
and a half hour every day to sort of look into this and pursue this further. Because I think this
has answers to a lot of things which human cognition has to scope in and do more in.
Toby: Great, yeah, one thing I'd be curious to ask is that, you know, on my channel, I've done a few
videos in the past relating to exams and specifically exams in India, things like the JEE
to get into university. And before we were recording, you said that you've gone on to study
maths at university. So clearly, you know, at the same time you were studying for this, you know,
mental maths, you were also studying your normal schoolwork, right? And did you ever sit the JEE
and have to do exams at the same time? How was that, balancing them?
Bhanu: I really did well in my JEE. In fact, I actually scored a 115/120 in my JEE in math. So
again right, I would look at it in two directions, which is mathematical acumen building can happen
from any side. It's about, I personally look at this as a mountain, you can climb it from any
forte, but the end is mathematical excellence. And there's no way you miss out on things as you
climb. So I mean, for instance, if I am doing a speed calculation and at some point of time I
wanted to do an approximation, there is no way I can do that without knowing the Taylor series,
there is no way I can do that without knowing how do I extrapolate and sort of do a bunch of other
things. When I'm, let's say, approximating a few calculations there's a lot of ideologies which go
behind it, be it, let's say conic sections, be it a lot of other stuff, which I think is a part of
what we do, number theory majorly. So, prime factorization, if that's the calculation I'm going
for. I learned a lot of formal math, through the problems I faced while I scaled on becoming the
world's fastest human calculator. So I will say that my journey in math was intertwined.
Toby: I really liked the comment that you made a bit before about kind of what you had learned
about the human brain and about learning itself through your experiences. And I wonder if you
could talk maybe a little bit more about that, because maybe that kind of gives a usefulness as
well to what you're doing. Not that it, you know, needs a usefulness because I know many sports you
do just for the sake of showing what's possible, but it seems like here, the mental calculation
stuff can kind of reveal a bit more about how we work, how we think.
Bhanu: Noam Chomsky, a very famous linguist says that you sort of look at the world, the way you
learn language, which is watching the world through the language glass, which is one of the
most revolutionary works between language and cognition.
I personally think that language and the way you learn numbers sort of determine how you look at
the world in general. And if I have to put it this way, from research which has been done by Piaget,
or a lot of other mathematician-philosophers have worked on this, or mathematical psychologists,
it's observed more so now than ever, that the way some kid or a student learns the number system,
the way they learn the operations of math, the way they learn how naturally one flows from the other
logical argumentation and stuff sort of determines their cognitive compass. If I have to say this
that way. When I say cognitive compass, I'm talking about the working memory, the iterative
memory, the long term memory, the reflex, the ability to partition thought, the ability to
parallel think, a lot of things here, and if I have to compare it with let's say, computers, or
let's say how a computer functions, it's about how you develop your RAM. How you develop your your
GPU, how you develop your processor, however that goes.
Toby: Yeah, I guess on that, and also bringing back the, you know, parallels to sports, why do
you think that you are able to beat for example, Shakuntala's record? And I asked that because, you
know, in sports, in some sports, maybe marathon running or something else, you see that over time,
people seem to be getting faster. Maybe it's the shoes or the swimsuits they're wearing or maybe
it's the way we train. But do you think in a similar way that people are getting smarter? Is
that why records are being broken here?
Bhanu: Sure, I could probably do that. Because I mean, I personally think my practice majorly has
not been through pen and paper solutions. It has been aided by software a lot. And I would say that
that's something which, I think plays a very key role. It's this way, right? I mean, there's two
ways to approach let's say, running for that same marathon, which is, one is to keep running for
that 100 metres expecting growth, or do 10k runs, do runs with weight, do runs with something else,
train yourself in 10 different things. So that eventually when you come back to this, you are
better. Mental calculation, and the art of it is slowly in decline, which is, I mean, when I look
forward, when I when I talk to let's say 60 year old war veterans, 70 year old World War veterans
across the globe, or, I mean, whenever I go and talk, they're way quicker at what they do than
let's say, people of my age, or under because of the reliance on calculators a lot, which is great.
For instance, I mean, no one really wants to calculate cost 46 and a half. We don't really want
to do that, because there's machines doing it for us. So when I compare it to the sport, this is
exactly what I say. And I think I'll probably repeat it here, which establishes the point. Usain
Bolt runs for 100 metres, right. The reason he runs for the 100 metres is to make sure to inspire
people to say that, okay, see, this is what being fit is. It's not that he does not have a car. So
it's not that he does not have a car. So I would probably end up with that saying that, if you
today, if you're here, you should probably be using Wolfram Alpha. If you're here, you should be
using your MATLAB and Mathematica. If you're not, you're not in the math game. But at the same time,
it's extremely important for you to train your brain. And there's no better exercise than
counting. And trust me. That's literally what I put here. Brain exercise is, I personally think
that math, if you lose out on calculations to be a way in which you train yourself, you're sort of
missing out one part of the jigsaw puzzle.
Toby: It's really interesting to hear that perhaps technology has played a role in helping you to
break records.
I guess I'd love to hear a little bit more about you know, what you're doing now, your current
mission?
Bhanu: Math failure is one of the major reasons why students drop out of school, which is to drop
out of any other educational trajectory they can have. So I think the problem which I do go on, and
I probably wish to solve is sort of at least make math not the speed breaker for someone's career
opportunity, because it doesn't, it shouldn't be that hard. And if you let's say inspire people,
because I think that the problem is twofold; one is that it's the social perception that math is
boring, which I think it's existent regardless of the country I'm talking about 'oh not math, not
really, not my thing'.
'Oh, you do math, you're a geek'.
So I'm trying to change that by let's say, doing performances and stage shows across the globe.
Toby: This, the competitive side of, you know, human calculation, it will really help some people
to get inspired with maths. For some people, that won't be quite right, because it might bring that,
you know, the sense of pressure and competitiveness that comes along with exams, too.
It can it can actually sometimes be detrimental. So I think one approach will not work for
everyone. This has clearly worked for you and, yeah, I would like to add a little disclaimer
that, you know, I personally studied math at uni as well. And I found that yeah, you can get by
just fine without being good at arithmetic, and it's not really going to hold you back. But it's
interesting to hear your story of a case where it's actually really helped propel you forward.
Bhanu: Math phobia exists, I mean, let's accept it, that there is a scare of every math exam,
which comes your way. The two ways to go about it. One is to, as you said, I mean, I think as you
pointed out also, that competitively getting it overwith is not always the best way to go about
it. Also, because of the fact that if you really want to write a book, you don't really have to be
a spell bee champion. It's as simple as that. But both of them have their own beautiful forms and I
believe that moving forward we have more people who sort of work towards catering such experiences
globally, where kids no longer are scared of math, but are accepted. They accept it as, let's say, a
part of their life just as we do with English or any other native language you speak.
Toby: Great. Yeah, it's a big mission, but I think it's a good one. Yeah, one little question I'd
like to end with is do you have maybe a role model or someone that you really look up to maybe from
history or now?
Bhanu: Actually a lot of mathematicians, but let me restrict to a couple of them. One very, very
major inspiration through my life from the beginning, how much ever I understood him or not,
from the beginning was Srinivasa Ramanujan, from India. And, I mean, I would say that my devotion
towards his work is, is I think, goes a long way because of the fact that, okay, one is obviously
the cultural, the sort of Indian-ness and the promotion of what he has done globally. But the
sheer nature of let's say, every time I look up into, let's say, read more, I realise that oh,
this is more apt to what I do. So I mean, wherever I was fumbling across a bunch of things, I've
somehow always come to a certain paper of his which I'm like, oh, wow, this, I think is
applicable to what I do. So I will say that he was one of my major inspirations.
Around, let's say, performances and making math a culture or let's say something which people
consume in India, I'm thankful for Shakuntala Devi. She was never a formal mathematics person
herself. She was never formally trained. But I think the relatability of a mathematician to an
average citizen of a country is I think, something which, which I think I've learned a lot from.
Toby: Great. Well, yeah, I find both of those people also very inspirational. So, yeah,
Bhanu: I mean, nameless to say the other couple of people include Laplace and Newton. I mean, I've
not gone there. But yeah, but I've not gone there now. Yeah.
Toby: Some of the greats. Yeah. All right. Well, congratulations on all of your success. And thanks
for sharing your insights.
Bhanu: Thank you. Thanks a lot. It was nice, nice being here.