> [...] but it now requires so much knowledge just to get to the frontiers of human knowledge, not to speak of making a dent into uncharted territory, that results are being obtained later and later in life.
That's not really the case here. Zhang spent 10 years out of school working in fields in the cultural revolution, and didn't start college until he was 23. After his PhD, he couldn't get an academic job for 8 years and ended up delivering food and working as an accountant. He only got a part time lectureship after that. He wasn't made a professor until his big proof at the age of 58.
It seems incredibly likely he'd have been able to proove his big proofs faster had his life gone otherwise.
> It seems incredibly likely he'd have been able to proove his big proofs faster had his life gone otherwise.
Why do you think that? It takes sometimes years (!) until you get used tona certain mathematical theory. And how long it takes isa very personal thing.
Remember von Neumann, who that that we don't learn nu mathematics, but only get used to it.
I think the only thing one can say was incredibly likeli is that Zhang, while not formally employed as a mathematician, kept thinking about mathematics (a rather common for people with mathematical training, though many just stick to do occasional problem solving).
> Zhang spent 10 years out of school working in fields in the cultural revolution, and didn't start college until he was 23. After his PhD, he couldn't get an academic job for 8 years and ended up delivering food and working as an accountant.
During that time he definitely spend less time on maths than he could or would in a better situation.
That's not really the case here. Zhang spent 10 years out of school working in fields in the cultural revolution, and didn't start college until he was 23. After his PhD, he couldn't get an academic job for 8 years and ended up delivering food and working as an accountant. He only got a part time lectureship after that. He wasn't made a professor until his big proof at the age of 58.
It seems incredibly likely he'd have been able to proove his big proofs faster had his life gone otherwise.