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Comment by jfc | Hacker News Reader

I hope this guy's inbox is full of job offers. That's a heck of a find.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/drzacharyharris

Wow, the guy's a monster. Fluent in classical (and Levantine) Arabic, Chinese, Greek; Top Putnam score (twice), teacher, Christian missionary. Sounds like he's got drive.

Nit-picky corrections:

1. Top Putnam score in Colorado. There's a pretty big difference between that, and say, top Putnam score in Massachusetts (which is more likely the same as top overall due to many Putnam Fellows coming from Harvard or MIT).

2. Elementary proficiency in Classical and Leventine Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Koine Greek

It's not like there aren't plenty of smart people in Colorado.

http://www.colorado.edu/news/series/cu-boulder-nobel-laureat... (add David Wineland to that list).

Can you beat any of it?

Sure, I may have actually done better on the Putnam than he has. I've gotten top 100 and top 200 before... but that really wasn't the point I was trying to make. I was just making the correction because the original claim is, at least to me, much more impressive than what is actually stated on his resume.

Wow, #1 sets off my tryhard alarm. Especially at the college level where a huge portion of high Putnam scorers migrate to locations like Cambridge and California.

top 50 or even 200 overall or whatever is far more impressive than #1 in a state that has no reputation for high scores.

Maybe he loves the place he lives in, he's quite happy doing the kind of work he does, and thus want to stay instead of moving to another place.

The rat race is not for everyone.

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