#183 – Po-Shen Loh: Mathematics, Math Olympiad, Combinatorics & Contact Tracing

Po-Shen Loh is a mathematician at CMU and coach of the USA International Math Olympiad team. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Po's Twitter: https://twitter.com/poshenloh
Po's Website: https://www.poshenloh.com/
Daily Challenges: https://daily.poshenloh.com/
NOVID: https://www.novid.org/

PODCAST INFO:
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Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
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YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
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- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman

OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(08:51) - Planes and bridges
(12:28) - Writing a computer game from scratch
(14:54) - Programming competitions
(18:28) - Math is hard
(23:59) - Contact tracing that preserves privacy
(1:01:16) - Math Olympiad
(1:16:57) - Hard math problem
(1:24:14) - Is math discovered or invented?
(1:29:09) - Intelligence
(1:35:59) - Math education
(1:40:10) - How to learn math
(1:49:06) - Combinatorics
(1:52:13) - Voting trees
(2:02:36) - Stochastic coalescence
(2:12:23) - P=NP
(2:16:39) - Tolkien and WWII
(2:19:00) - Advice for young people
(2:21:05) - Meaning of life