Sudden Progress on Prime Number Problem Has Mathematicians Buzzing
Two points:- In math, an innovative "attack" (such as a technique to approach a problem) can result in years of subsequent research that progresses a field. Zhang deserves a lot of credit for his accomplishment!- He shouldn't have had to work at subway. If only our society held intelligent people in the same regard as athletes. What we have right now (hoops to get tenure, publish or perish culture, etc.) is a joke. I review papers for some notable conferences in my subfield in CS. This week I read about a dozen papers. The ones that pained me the most were written by very smart people solving made up and artificial problems. But hey ... you need to publish this crap to graduate/get tenure/get next grant/whatever. How about a basic income for everybody with a PhD?