/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.10737865]

>Erik Demaine, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
>father is a polymath genius hippie
>home schooled from day 1, learning science, mathematics, art
>identified as child prodigy at age 7
>begin university at age 12
>PhD completed by age 20
>PhD also happens to win the best PhD thesis award in Canada for that year
>Become youngest professor in MIT history at age 20
>Becomes a pioneer the field of computational folding
>46 page CV, filled with non-bullshit publications and prestigious awards and fellowships

At what point did you realize that you will never be able to compete with guys like this?

[Anonymous No.10737873]

There's a point in your life (usually around 10 yo) when you begin to acknowledge that there are some people that are objecively better than you, no matter what you do. Nice bait tho

[Anonymous No.10737878]

>>10737865
Anon, you have to realize that most people who go to be researchers are more or less normal, but they're insanely dedicated and sufficiently intelligent. The former is waaaay more important than the latter. Demaine got where he is because of his intelligence, no doubt, but in greater part because he was really interested, and the 80s and 90s had a lot of interesting, low hanging fruit problems that he wanted to solve early. Like any other child prodigy has mentioned, particularly Tao, grad school is the great equalizer, since you have to work on a problem nobody has the answer for. In that regard, research is more like synthesis of material than just solving things straight out of the blue.

Basically, don't worry, you're not supposed to compete with them anyway. All research is insanely collaborative. You're supposed to talk to them in order to enrich yourself and your own work. Don't take things like this with a doomer's outlook. Make it work to your benefit.

[Anonymous No.10737893]

>>10737865
He's also really into origami math too right? Pretty cool shit

[Anonymous No.10737919]

>>10737865
lol what a nerd

[Anonymous No.10737923]

>compete
>insanely dedicated

its more like

>reading the stuff you're interested in 9-5
>basically it's your hobby, you'd be doing it anyway
>people are paying you for this because some unimaginable reasons
>slapping 2-3 papers together and calling it research
>all the required background material is like 1-2 books, because of overspecialization these days

getting into research can be hard, but once you're in a semi-intelligent undergrad can pull it off

[Anonymous No.10737933]

>>10737865
When I fucked his wife

[Anonymous No.10737952]

>>10737865
Demaine is cool because he has a lot of his hand/interests on the side of pure math but also on the practicality of algorithms. I think he's a model TCS researcher.

[Anonymous No.10737959]

>>10737893
Yes anon it says "computational folding" right there in the OP

[Anonymous No.10737968]

>>10737865
>you will never be able to compete
the nigga has a ponytail.

He's nowhere close to competition in any way for me

[Anonymous No.10737980]

>>10737865
>father is a dirty hippy
>>great start
>main area of research is "computational origami"
>>makes for glamorous press releases but is insanely boring and not even math nerds actually give a shit
>only other famous publication is about embedding NP problems into video games
>>literally trivial meme shit, about super mario bros
>hit his peak at age 20
>>whole rest of life as continual disappointment
>never learned to dress or groom himself
>>bald, with a ponytail
>leaf

[Anonymous No.10737981]

There are still people publishing papers today by digging up old things that Euler discovered but never bothered to prove. Your only chance is to pick up the pieces that the greats left as they leave them behind partially finished to pursue even deeper problems.

[Anonymous No.10737986]

>>10737981
(That said, if these gods among men ever figure out how to wire up Coq to a neural net and automate the dirty work of math, you'll be out of work too.)

[Anonymous No.10737989]

>>10737865
P H E N O T Y P E
H
E
N
O

[Anonymous No.10737992]

>>10737865
Who gives a fuck? The vast majority of researchers and professors were never identified as child prodigies

[Anonymous No.10738013]

>>10737980
As a disgusting le*f myself I agree with that last part being the worst part

[Anonymous No.10738020]

>>10737986
Is this supposed to be a joke? You don't sound educated.

[Anonymous No.10738036]

>>10737865
damn, how he can be so productive? How he got such intelligence? Where i can read about intelligence and how it is determined?

[Anonymous No.10738061]

>>10738020
Yes, of course it's a joke. And although there's nothing in principle about mathematics that makes it intrinsically incapable of being automated away, unless we find a solution to building AGI, humans will always have a complimentary role to automated proofs.

[Anonymous No.10738151]

>>10737989
based
>>10737980
redpilled