> That, and SMPY isn't a particularly compelling example. 1972-1997 is prime-time for computing, megacorporations, cold war military-industrial complex, and col

> That, and SMPY isn't a particularly compelling example. 1972-1997 is prime-time for computing, megacorporations, cold war military-industrial complex, and college educations all-around. Hard to imagine a more provident time to be a mathematically precocious youth! Looking at this in a broader slice of history, a comparison to the lives of men like Ramanujan or Heaviside would be more fitting. SMPY covers the same time period as much of the anecdotal or self-selected evidence he invokes. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.