He's an impressive person, but "poor guy pulled himself up by the bootstraps using sheer force of will" narratives usually fall apart when you look more closely.
If I were in his situation, there's no way I would have had the gull to try that route. Probably would've just stayed in the forest service. Maybe gone for a GED then community college then a local land grant. By which time I'd be too burnt out on it all (and too old) to even think about a doctorate.
There's no doubting that the German people helped this guy achieve what he achieved. There's also no doubting that he was truly exceptionally resourceful (and maybe a bit lucky, too).
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/05/the-female-mathematic...
> creating opportunities for yourself where none seem to exist
The fact is that there were opportunities. In countries where education is free and accessible, there are always opportunities.
If the subject is spreading education, I will happily be partisan and political, even if you find it irritating. It's too important to ignore, especially when it's a core factor in this headline and story.
Intellectual curiosity is HN's core value. Curiosity is gratified by things that are specific, so the specific is precious here. Generic ideological arguments are the opposite: they're reruns of episodes seen many times, for which circumstances are interesting only as primer fuel, quickly to be discarded on getting going.
Worse, the energy they mobilize is agitated and the stance they induce is rigid. They throw people out out of the relaxed, reflective state that makes for good HN conversation, charging their reflexes and putting them into battle mode . From an intellectual curiosity point of view, it doesn't matter what the battle is—we end up with scorched earth either way.
It may be important to get people marching, but let's not march over a lichen garden.
The discovery is amazing. What's even more impressive is that he received a free education in another country, with a home-schooled background.
At a minimum it pointed thither, since government programs and payment for education are politically charged and your comment read as advocacy in that area. You also used ideologically charged language ("poor guy pulled himself up by the bootstraps") which is the opposite of "purely factual". That explains why a user responded with "political bullshit" (which was also bad, btw, since it's name-calling by HN guidelines' standard).
Or maybe education is one of those things important to the survival of our species and the improvement of quality of life for everyone. Nobody benefits when someone who wanted to be a doctor or a scientist and was capable of becoming one is denied an education and instead can't get a job for lack of qualifications.
The number of people who've pulled themselves up from their own bootstraps are zero. You're always dependent on others or benefit from their knowledge in some capacity. The degree to which this happens is variable, but it can never be eliminated.
A "self-made man" is a myth. Give it up.