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Describing this as 25 year old math problem is a bit misleading. There might have been two or three otherwise not noted mathematicians that have looked at the problem a couple of times after dinner during the last 25 years -- is a better description.

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Can you explain how you know that?

Taste for mathematical fashion.

I read the article. I see how much published work on the problem is mentioned, and where is it published. In this case, not much. If a mathematical problem is really hard, and really important, of the type to reasonably qualify as a "25 year old problem", you will see a lot of partial results, many different approaches, connections to other ares of mathematics, a lot of work by many people. Nothing like that happened here.

It's an educated guess, which is fair, but it came off as a matter of fact in the way you articulated your claim

What I said is that "very few people cared" is a better description than a "25 year old problem". It is better because it better aligns with the facts presented in the Wired article above and other similar sources, due to reasons above. Nothing here is a guess.

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