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I agree with everything you wrote. However, it seems to me that AoPS is populated with math enthusiasts, while HN is populated with hackers. AoPS is indeed most
by TriinT 17y ago
I agree with everything you wrote. However, it seems to me that AoPS is populated with math enthusiasts, while HN is populated with hackers. AoPS is indeed mostly about math competitions, and yes, math competitions have little to do with real math, but just count the number of great mathematicians who performed amazingly well in the IMO: Terry Tao, Misha Gromov, Grisha Perelman, etc. My point was not that AoPS is about real math, but rather that it's more likely to have math whiz kids than HN.
- carterschonwald 17y agochoose any difficult profession and any highschool or college level competition, you can exhibit people who did well in both, does that mean one is the predictor of the other? I don't think so.
- TriinT 17y agoThat's quite true. I try not to fall under the spell of the selectivity bias. I know a bunch of math grad students who competed in the IMO and the Putnam, and I know another (smaller) bunch of math grad students who despize math competitions. It's a matter of personality, I guess. Some are problem solvers, other are theory builders. We need both. All in all, the point was that math competitions, per se, attract math "whiz kids". Hence, AoPS should be populated by, at least some, math "whiz kids".