The Beautiful Mind of Daniel Tammet
Daniel Tammet is one of only about 50 high-functioning autistic savants in the world, and aside from his ability to see beauty and order in numbers (he’s recited pi to more than 22,000 digits), he’s been able to communicate eloquently how his mind works, in his memoir “Born on a Blue Day” and his latest book : “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind.”
In this interview from On Point, Tammet talks about the feat of knowing 22,000 digits of pi, but also a larger concept that underpins much of his writing: his mind isn’t that different from ours. We’re all born with intuitions for numbers, says Tammet, and there is a continuum of human talent for numbers; his mind may be at the extreme end, but it’s on that continuum.
This is an absorbing conversation, with the smart listener questions that always set On Point apart from other talk shows.
