Maypril Edition 2026: Po-Shen Loh: Rethinking the Way We Think

Quick! You have 3 seconds to answer – what’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word ‘math’? Most people would say things like ‘numbers,’ or ‘calculus,’ or even the International Math Olympiad. Yet, Professor Po-Shen Loh clearly disagrees. Professor Po-Shen Loh works at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches the mathematics course. He formerly coached the US Math Olympiad team for a decade, his team winning multiple awards. Through his ideas about helping others, thought-full thinking, and the impact of AI, he shows us a new way to appreciate and understand math, and even life.

Professor Loh’s opinion on both math and life is that we should focus on helping others and being thoughtful – even in a competition. He lives by the phrase “be thought-full, as in thoughtful and full of thought”. This means to think carefully, not just quickly, and to think of others as well of yourself. Once, he even told his US Math Olympiad team, “In here, you are all competing for medals. But do not think of yourself as competitors. In here you grow together.” This expresses his hope for the team to work together and collaborate, and encourage each other, rather than only focus on competition. This shows how life is more meaningful when we focus not on winning, but beginning.

Loh is not at all focused on the ‘competitor’ part of the competition. To him, every competitor is an asset, an ally, every competition an opportunity to gain experience. As a math coach, people expect him to push his team to win every competition. Yet, he doesn’t give a thing for winning. Sure, winning is a great bonus, but it is the learning and improving that is more valuable. This connects again to thought-fullness, as this approach focuses on growth, and not beating others. For example, the question “Did I learn?” is more valuable than “Did I win?” After all, there is no point in learning and winning something you already know. This shows that success is about trying to beat your best score, and not others’.

Sooner or later, AI will change the futures of math oriented graduates. Mathematicians are no longer needed as much, seeing that there are already many near perfect accuracy proof-checking programs, and AI solves math problems faster and more accurately than humans. This does not mean that humans no longer need math – the problem solving and deep thinking skills we get from math is still invaluable to our life. AI also isn’t the same “Mwahaha, I love turning against humans” as we see in science fiction – if AI does evil, it usually is hacked by malicious humans. AI is, of course, useful if used the right way. This shows that thinking is more valuable than calculating.

Math is beautiful when you see its connections to real life. Look around – cellular reproduction corresponds to numbers’ powers, and flower petals usually grow with a pattern of the Fibonacci sequence. As quoted from physicist Richard Feynman, “Where math meets nature is the beauty of life.” Nature is the wild, untamed world we live in, whereas math is a strategized mess of logic, thinking, and facts. Viewed together, all of the observable world looks like a perfectly coordinated mess of shapes, volumes, and abstractions. The average homo sapiens does not notice such beauty. Yet all it takes is for another person to spread the love of math in nature. The future will not bend towards who is the smartest or strongest – it is the thought-full people, the ones that truly love people, that will change the world for the better.