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Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

quantamagazine.org

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Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#11

Post by tmsh »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Great work! I wonder if their expertise would be helpful in understanding deep learning, a rare field that made advances before mathematicians had fully laid the groundwork (sometimes they do a century ahead of time :)); https://deepmath-conference.com/

I just don’t get why comments like this are downvoted. But I do suspect this makes Hacker News what it is. Good at surfacing a certain x to y percentile of a certain way of looking at things.

It’s not a place to brainstorm or be open minded about new ways of thinking successfully - not very very often. More a place to surface small useful bits of information that people find (a) useful and (b) that people are passionate about already. And there’s a lot of value in that as a reader. And some value as writer in practicing articulation of very clearly thought-out ideas.

But yeah - today I realized HN and ‘I wonder if...’ comments don’t really jive together.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#12

Post by TrackerFF »

bigdict wrote: post #4

This sort of news is always like a splash of cold water to the face to me. I haven't produced any breakthrough research as an undergraduate. Have I accomplished enough? Am I too complacent? Should I be doing more, working more, studying more? I always remember that the best way to achievement is to stick to areas that are personally exciting to me, and keep cranking at the best pace I can. Others' success shouldn't m…

He's one in a 1000/10000/100000/etc. - don't feel too bad.

Most work is never going to anywhere, no mater how smart or talented you are. Tons of highly intelligent and motivated people out there, working on dead-end projects. (not that there's not any value in such work, but for the vast majority, we're not going to be single contributors that significantly move the needle).

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#13

Post by notagoodidea »

gumby wrote: post #10

Even though this is in Quanta this is really cool!

Even though? Is there a problem with Quanta that I am not aware of? I find it a nice magazine to read about various math-y subjects and researchers despite the editorial click-bait-ish style sometimes. It is a nice starting point to discover new stuffs.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#14

Post by renewiltord »

tmsh wrote: post #11
mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Great work! I wonder if their expertise would be helpful in understanding deep learning, a rare field that made advances before mathematicians had fully laid the groundwork (sometimes they do a century ahead of time :)); https://deepmath-conference.com/

I just don’t get why comments like this are downvoted. But I do suspect this makes Hacker News what it is. Good at surfacing a certain x to y percentile of a certain way of looking at things. It’s not a place to brainstorm or be open minded about new ways of thinking successfully - not very very often. More a place to surface small useful bits of information that people find (a) useful and (b) that people are passion…

Think about it. If you use quantum mechanics then maybe the answer will come to you.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#15

Post by throwaway201103 »

bigdict wrote: post #4

This sort of news is always like a splash of cold water to the face to me. I haven't produced any breakthrough research as an undergraduate. Have I accomplished enough? Am I too complacent? Should I be doing more, working more, studying more? I always remember that the best way to achievement is to stick to areas that are personally exciting to me, and keep cranking at the best pace I can. Others' success shouldn't m…

Most post-graduate researchers don't produce any breakthrough research. The produce incremental improvements, moderately interesting findings, etc. Or often, inconclusive results. Breakthroughs are rare.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#16

Post by gigatexal »

im3w1l wrote: post #8
bigdict wrote: post #4

This sort of news is always like a splash of cold water to the face to me. I haven't produced any breakthrough research as an undergraduate. Have I accomplished enough? Am I too complacent? Should I be doing more, working more, studying more? I always remember that the best way to achievement is to stick to areas that are personally exciting to me, and keep cranking at the best pace I can. Others' success shouldn't m…

If you have a roof over your head and food on the table you are doing enough. Anything beyond that is either for your enjoyment or to feed your ego.

This is the only way to not go insane with I’m-not-not-doing-as-much-as-person-x syndrome.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#17

Post by munchbunny »

MaximumYComb wrote: post #6

I was having a discussion recently in another forum where I argued that success at a Math Olympiad is a good indicator of future success. I'm not surprised to see in the slightest he won a gold medal at 16.

That doesn’t seem like a hot take to me. Success at a Math Olympiad (at the international level) is almost certainly a good indicator because you have to be an outlier in both talent and willingness to grind in order to get that far, and that level of achievement is the type of success that snowballs because people respect the achievement.

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#18

Post by bg117 »

im3w1l wrote: post #8
bigdict wrote: post #4

This sort of news is always like a splash of cold water to the face to me. I haven't produced any breakthrough research as an undergraduate. Have I accomplished enough? Am I too complacent? Should I be doing more, working more, studying more? I always remember that the best way to achievement is to stick to areas that are personally exciting to me, and keep cranking at the best pace I can. Others' success shouldn't m…

If you have a roof over your head and food on the table you are doing enough. Anything beyond that is either for your enjoyment or to feed your ego.

:)

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#19

Post by albatruss »

princeb wrote: post #9
bigdict wrote: post #4

This sort of news is always like a splash of cold water to the face to me. I haven't produced any breakthrough research as an undergraduate. Have I accomplished enough? Am I too complacent? Should I be doing more, working more, studying more? I always remember that the best way to achievement is to stick to areas that are personally exciting to me, and keep cranking at the best pace I can. Others' success shouldn't m…

instead of breaking new ground in statistics, i'm using 100% of my brain's ability to add, minus, multiply and divide to squeeze another 0.003 bps in trade execution. i sleep soundly at night knowing that there are guys who are way smarter than me doing even sillier things than me.

I don't think having one's life satisfaction being a function of comparing yourself to other people is ever healthy, but this attitude seems especially unfortunate. Maybe their doing sillier things means they are, ipso facto, not smarter than you, or at least better than you in a way that matters?

Re: Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory

#20

Post by vjk »

Great article - very inspiring to hear about his collaboration with another undergraduate at MIT over 3 years, and the joint awards they've won together.

My undergraduate graph theory textbook had this quote from Paul Erdos:

" Suppose aliens invade the earth and threaten to obliterate it in a year's time unless human beings can find the Ramsey number for red five and blue five. We could marshal the world's best minds and fastest computers, and within a year we could probably calculate the value.

If the aliens demanded the Ramsey number for red six and blue six, however, we would have no choice but to launch a preemptive attack."

In other words - some of the basic questions about these unbelievably small numbers (that you could count on your hands and toes) are so difficult, they push the limits of human ingenuity.

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