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Kudos to him and all.. but don't 15 yo's these days have better things to do than solve the Riemann hypothesis? Like, ant collections or something?
by nolite 16y ago
Kudos to him and all.. but don't 15 yo's these days have better things to do than solve the Riemann hypothesis? Like, ant collections or something?
- cperciva 16y agoI doubt it was a serious suggestion. I discovered at a similar age that news reporters have a habit of taking remarks out of context.
- albertsun 16y agoThe reporter probably has little understanding of what the Riemann Hypothesis is, and so can't tell whether or not it was a serious suggestion.
- zandorg 16y agoBut the reporter gave no weight to his statement. "Arran has said he would like to solve" doesn't imply anything other than that's what he said.
- albertzeyer 16y agoSure it implies something: By noting it, the reporter weights it as relevant/important.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- SteveC 16y agoAs an uncle with 18 nieces and nephews I can tell you that most of them don't have anything better to do.
- jonsen 16y agoI don't get the downvoting here. I think it's a legitimate question. Makes me think thoughts like: For what purposes are we alowed to take away a childhood?
- nolite 16y agoExactly, childhood isn't about just studying hard, getting the best education in the fastest amount of time... its also about building a foundation of character skills to help you through life: making friends, building social skills, having crushes, playing in the sand and building castles, creating the ability to imagine things. That's what makes a fulfilling life, not solving theorems. As a high level scientist myself, I know the tunnel vision you get when you're working on pointed world-class problems. And come on people.. this kid is "not" kidding about trying to solve the Riemann hypothesis. When I was 15 I wanted to build a time machine. I should have played outside more too.
- MoreMoschops 16y agoI bet solving the Riemann would be pretty fulfilling.
- zackattack 16y agoI never found having a crush to be particularly fulfilling.
- JabavuAdams 16y agoPart of childhood is having freedom to basically play at / study what you want, without having to worry about paying the bills / social approval, etc. That's what he's doing. So, there's a possibility that this is exactly what he wants to do. The danger is he may not have had a lot of time to sample other interests, so he's doing the first thing he was good at, while there may be more optimal (for his happiness) alternatives that get closed off by this focus. Also, if he has a close group of friends and moving to university will separate them, that's something that can be quite traumatic. Can you tell I'm ambivalent? I'm speaking from experience. The goal of my entrepreneurship is pretty much to return to a state where I can work on whatever I fancy, without having to worry about how to pay the bills (and without sacrificing the obligations I've accumulated).
- senki 16y agoThe bird watching doesn't count?
- heresy 16y agoIf it's what he wants to do, and his parents aren't pressuring him to do it, where's the problem? Worked for Terence Tao.