3 ms·
40x sounds pretty conservative to me. I did graduate school in math (did not get a Ph.D.) and my advisor indicated that he assigns problems assuming a 200x mul
by yaks_hairbrush 11y ago
40x sounds pretty conservative to me. I did graduate school in math (did not get a Ph.D.) and my advisor indicated that he assigns problems assuming a 200x multiplier between his capability and the students'. That is, he'd assume that something he could see how to do and could execute inside of a week would be a good thesis problem to keep a Ph.D. student busy for two years.
As far as the 10x programmer stuff... Obviously there are 10x and probably even 100x programmers. They're the experts, and there are not many of them.
- NhanH 11y agoOut of curiosity, how old was your advisor at the time (ie is he in his mid career at his peak, toward the end or is he on the younger side etc.)? And is the gap in capability just because of his experience, or is he just a much better scientist than the average researchers?
- yaks_hairbrush 11y agoMy advisor at the time was 60-ish, and had tenure for 30 years or so. The gap in capability was (to my eye) mostly due to his experience.
- kaitai 11y agoYep -- my advisor figured he could do my thesis problem in a week. It did take me only 1.5 years to find a counterexample and kill my own thesis, but these are estimates after all.
- backlava 11y agoIf he could have proven the theorem in a week despite its having a counterexample, that is impressive.