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Comment by js8 | Hacker News Reader

> mathematicians are also best when they are young

This guy springs to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laszlo_Babai

Because, yeah, programmers and mathematicians don't actually need any experience, they can just think everything up on the spot!

I also wonder how you imagine that other professions gain their experience, if they don't need to think.

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it is a historical fact that most of the best mathematicians make their famous discoveries when they are younger than 30. if you have studied the subject, you'd know this, so i assume you just dislike these facts and argue for the sake of it.

If employable programmers are as rare as brilliant young mathematicians, we have a serious problem.

I would question whether this is actually true. Stats on Field medalists have to be taken with a grain of salt, given that it is awarded at 40 years top in the first place

That is pretty limited information. Talk to a good professor. he will gladly admit that his mind is not as nimble as it was once. maybe he will say things like hes glad he can still keep up and do research. mine told me this in front of an entire class just to drive the point home that 'the time is now'.

I have been doing mathematics up until a couple of postdocs - and based on first hand experience I think that the story of young mathematicians is mostly a myth.

Maybe people in their 60s were not at the center of research, but I would say that the field was dominated by people in their 40s (certainly not by 20-something).

I cited the Fields medal, because their artificial limitation on age is one of the first things that comes to mind when talking about the subject

That has to do with the Ponzi scheme that academic life is. Your professor is running a group of ~10 woefully underpaid grad students and he needs fresh blood to keep it running. Your time is now, before you discover that there are way better paying options available.

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