http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2346806 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2346806 was not something someone came up with after a few days at it. They

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2346806 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2346806 was not something someone came up with after a few days at it. They had deep understanding of the statistics behind the algorithm, and an almost unfathomable knowledge in the domain, not to mention a large network to help them. I'm sure that most intelligent people would be able come up with it if they had the same circumstances working in their favor.