4 ms·

The headline makes my eye twitch. It is technically correct but pushes age bit too much into forefront. It is a bachelor thesis work supervized by Scott Aaronso

The headline makes my eye twitch. It is technically correct but pushes age bit too much into forefront. It is a bachelor thesis work supervized by Scott Aaronson of all people. It is going to be really interesting to see if there are other algorithms where we find classical algorithms that run in polynomial time.

swizzbeats 8y ago
You honestly come off as a hater in this comment. It's absolutely remarkable what he did as a teenager, and the kid is obviously a genius. Show some appreciation.
dljsjr 8y ago
Maybe I'm just easily impressed but the idea of a 17 year old who skipped three grades and is already a third-year university student who was talented enough to catch Scott's attention and then address a technically challenging problem like this certainly warrants at least some recognition for the age at which he made this accomplishment. Or maybe I'm just not smart enough to hang out on Hacker News.
- archgoon 8y ago
  The issue is that the title actually diminishes the accomplishment by focusing on the wrong thing. The work is impressive independent of the authors age. By emphasizing the age, the focus shifts from what he did, which he should be proud of, to something he will no longer have in two years.
  - n4r9 8y ago
    As someone who has done research in quantum information, the age shifts this result from "very impressive" to "extremely impressive".
  - lozenge 8y ago
    "Person discovers result in complexity theory" doesn't really beckon your mouse.
  - lordnacho 8y ago
    Surely him being very young impresses more. Kylian Mbappe won the World Cup a couple of weeks ago. He was 19. That makes it a bigger deal. Generally people are impressed by accomplishments made by younger people. I suppose there is also a similar effect at the other end, for a similar reason: you're disadvantaged in accomplishing stuff if you're at either end of the age spectrum. You either had a lot less time to get to the top, or your faculties are waning precipitously.
  - sharpneli 8y ago
    Precisely this. He already was awesome by getting a bachelors so soon and going to grad school next year. This result is on top of an awesome beginning of a career, not just a thing a random teenager did.
  - chongli 8y ago
    The piece was written by a journalist. Journalists know how to write for a general audience. That means making the story about a human being. The general public loves reading stories about prodigies. They don't care at all about the "quantum advantage" of this or that algorithm.
- mcguire 8y ago
  Note that Aaronson also thought that a fast classical algorithm was impossible. Tang found the algorithm in spite of that false start.
  - rectangletangle 8y ago
    Always be skeptical of "impossible" without proof.
- hackernewsacct 8y ago
  >Maybe I'm just easily impressed but the idea of a 17 year old who skipped three grades and is already a third-year university student.. Not saying this applies to Tang. But would you be equally impressed by a 17 year old from an upper middle class family whose parents recognized their gifts and used their influence to assist them in skipping 3 grades and enrolling in college early vs 17 year old from lower income family who is equally bright as the former kid, but graduates at 21 and receives no recognition for it due to an unheard of advisor at a low ranked school? On paper you'd be more amazed by the former, while the latter is equally as bright but is sort of dismissed because of their situation.
  - swiss_beatz 8y ago
    lol, are you seriously implying the kid got to where he got because of his background?
  - trophycase 8y ago
    Ok, so is your solution to be unimpressed by both, or... ?
- phkahler 8y ago
  I thought it was taking a poke at quantum computing by putting the emphasis on his age. But that could be straight up projection on my part - I admit to having serious doubts about both the relevance and practicality of quantum computers. Yes, how I interpret it is influenced by my own bias ;-)

swizzbeats 8y ago

You honestly come off as a hater in this comment. It's absolutely remarkable what he did as a teenager, and the kid is obviously a genius. Show some appreciation.

dljsjr 8y ago

Maybe I'm just easily impressed but the idea of a 17 year old who skipped three grades and is already a third-year university student who was talented enough to catch Scott's attention and then address a technically challenging problem like this certainly warrants at least some recognition for the age at which he made this accomplishment. Or maybe I'm just not smart enough to hang out on Hacker News.

archgoon 8y ago
The issue is that the title actually diminishes the accomplishment by focusing on the wrong thing. The work is impressive independent of the authors age. By emphasizing the age, the focus shifts from what he did, which he should be proud of, to something he will no longer have in two years.
- n4r9 8y ago
  As someone who has done research in quantum information, the age shifts this result from "very impressive" to "extremely impressive".
- lozenge 8y ago
  "Person discovers result in complexity theory" doesn't really beckon your mouse.
- lordnacho 8y ago
  Surely him being very young impresses more. Kylian Mbappe won the World Cup a couple of weeks ago. He was 19. That makes it a bigger deal. Generally people are impressed by accomplishments made by younger people. I suppose there is also a similar effect at the other end, for a similar reason: you're disadvantaged in accomplishing stuff if you're at either end of the age spectrum. You either had a lot less time to get to the top, or your faculties are waning precipitously.
- sharpneli 8y ago
  Precisely this. He already was awesome by getting a bachelors so soon and going to grad school next year. This result is on top of an awesome beginning of a career, not just a thing a random teenager did.
- chongli 8y ago
  The piece was written by a journalist. Journalists know how to write for a general audience. That means making the story about a human being. The general public loves reading stories about prodigies. They don't care at all about the "quantum advantage" of this or that algorithm.
mcguire 8y ago
Note that Aaronson also thought that a fast classical algorithm was impossible. Tang found the algorithm in spite of that false start.
- rectangletangle 8y ago
  Always be skeptical of "impossible" without proof.
hackernewsacct 8y ago
>Maybe I'm just easily impressed but the idea of a 17 year old who skipped three grades and is already a third-year university student.. Not saying this applies to Tang. But would you be equally impressed by a 17 year old from an upper middle class family whose parents recognized their gifts and used their influence to assist them in skipping 3 grades and enrolling in college early vs 17 year old from lower income family who is equally bright as the former kid, but graduates at 21 and receives no recognition for it due to an unheard of advisor at a low ranked school? On paper you'd be more amazed by the former, while the latter is equally as bright but is sort of dismissed because of their situation.
- swiss_beatz 8y ago
  lol, are you seriously implying the kid got to where he got because of his background?
- trophycase 8y ago
  Ok, so is your solution to be unimpressed by both, or... ?
phkahler 8y ago
I thought it was taking a poke at quantum computing by putting the emphasis on his age. But that could be straight up projection on my part - I admit to having serious doubts about both the relevance and practicality of quantum computers. Yes, how I interpret it is influenced by my own bias ;-)