The Fields Medal should return to its roots
I think the age limit for the Fields medal reinforces this idea that &quot;mathematics is a young mans game.&quot; It&#x27;s one of many reasons why I got discouraged into entering mathematics when I was young because of this and math competitions.<p>When I was younger , I would visit websites such as AOP , and ask questions and then be treated in a condescending way by students who were my age or younger who would then boast about their scores on Contests such as AMC. This just reinforced me that I probably shouldn&#x27;t waste time pursuing mathematics as a career because I felt that I was drastically behind them, and I would be competing with them for positions that they could take.<p>It took some time for me to realize that having encouraging parents who are academics&#x2F;engineers helps significantly in guiding you in a career such as mathematics.