I wouldn't say he does 'great science' and I don't think he would either. He pokes at the edges of a highly specific field using math/programming tools that are

I wouldn't say he does 'great science' and I don't think he would either. He pokes at the edges of a highly specific field using math/programming tools that are incredibly basic by HN's standards but almost magical to his peers. It's all leverage. It's good, solid work done very efficiently. Will the next Pasteur or Semmelweis work this way? Probably not. But let's not pretend 99.9999% of PhD's are on that route anyway. And no big deal. Science would do better optimising for an army of effective workers than the odd genius. Those tend to make themselves known anyway.