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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 emp
by 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 agoAs 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 agoSurely 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 agoPrecisely 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 agoThe 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.