Stay hungry, stay foolish.

It’s very strong academically, but not without problems. When I went there I expected it to be a sort of promised land for nerds, but was disappointed.

Aside from the creationist history teacher who taught a quarter-long unit on the perils of believing in evolution, the biggest problem at TJ was probably what you might call the “preppie infiltrator” problem. A lot of kids who just want to get into Harvard get in, and they don’t care at all about math/science. They could also be very competitive and very mean.

TJ is the sort of school where 95% of the student body is “accepted,” and then the other 5% is miserable. It’s great for the socially average nerds, but those of us who struggled to fit in even at TJ had it worse than misfits at Lake Braddock. At least there are lots of other misfits at what TJ kids call their “base school.”

Then there was the cheating problem….

I was just able to look up as my cat sat on my computer,
IThinkImClever did say something great. You are S F***A , and you should NEVER let , a snigh comment or insult truly get to you, let it fuel your brains fire to gain more intelligence! #harnesstheforce jkn.//

but really you are strong to recognize that seeking out answers you dont know or working on a problem is just the answer to come closer to understanding it, np admitting if you knew the answer RIGHT than or not, because with some thought you will(<<% than not).

If you are anything like you were, I hope you are doing well =), I see you got married, congratulations and the last photo of your post is great! you,your wife and brother look happy =)

BTw, nice twist with Shor's algorithm on the purely classical combo

one of the last things I was going to say was actually something you have already left in a comment in this post already! proving you may be somewhat the same scott=) if i recall. Guess who i am, IP address man, ever since you told me about how you notice who and what type of tendencies off watching the posterIP, I two found that concept valuable.
if you cant guess who I am, I will tell you im sure.

I have something that happened to me recently, very coincidental, which means by no way was it actually coincidental =) and it does have a small contemplation part that I may want to ask you your thought on. (large scale concept) but for now (small scale concept) what in your opinion is the chance that someone could be in the right spot at the right time to see something (only occurring for an extremely short time) at the right location on earth and in space(I was bias on where i was looking although using only simplistic reasoning (just a weird sense in the cosmos I've had and been able to track)small traces of notable scientific reasoning), AND ALSO have something looking right there to capture the mystery? Compounding all into noticing its recent discovery also by (KATZ/Berkeley) within the same 12to 24 hours of the event on my end, they published a short synapse over night, but If we are both tackling the correct* event, both probably at relative times, I believe I have a bunch more to add to it having been true/correct. The problem I've been having doing something about it, is of course the odds of all of the correct environmental factors that were all spot on to actually be this randomly significantly precise.

To top it off, the reference frame me and you met at, (also having to do with where I'm/them/and KATZ are located on earth) just published something maybe a couple days ago that they too found something, both being in the opposite stage like found first (aftereffects) found later (june 2nd or something, the initial goodbye to create the aftereffects) in a relatively close not precise galactic location. literally there are so many other "coincidences" that seem to be puzzling me out of my mind, freezing me on what to even think or do regarding the massive coincidental sequence. I know this is extremely vague because I can not publicly detail it here but really, all this coincidence, such rare/significant accumulation of chance could have actually taken place or is it of course some error. there is some type of way of proving if it is correct and I have been working on how to use those tools, but it is even harder to say yay or nah from a possible error or not that I am just so stuck and puzzled and I know you are intelligent, where do your thoughts lie on a compounding sequence of coincidences that the computation surrounding them is just a wee bit out of say human scale! lol

sorry for the run on sentences, i hope you are doing well with your wife and family back home or where you may b traveling to, treat yourself right, youve obviously been doing well advocating the some computational science for america, and that is extremely important. Plus I cant believe you are over 35! lol are you even 35 yet, what a prize to get right at the age of the requirement for the prize=)

take care

p/s. boo on the mail requirement, now you will know without a cool guess on who i may be lol. =)

Dude! you’re Scott Fucking Aaronson!

Not only is your reputation already well known, it would be criminal for you to over-contemplate trivial or simple questions, although their solutions are sometimes the most difficult to see.

I also say feel free to ask ‘simple’ and/or ‘dumb’ questions. Sometimes they prove to be the most fruitful ones, and other’s insights on them can prove useful. Don’t let the “Mike’s” of the world get to you.

Some of us are living vicariously through you, you frickin’ genius. Stop sweating the small stuff. =)

As for what I suggested you read: sounds like ‘molonov’? What a clue to go on! In quantum computing, the closest we have do “molonov” is probably Dorit Aharonov. She’s indeed written beautiful survey articles about quantum algorithms (one is linked to in the “Quantum Computing Primers” section on the sidebar to the right of this blog). But I can’t remember why I would’ve recommended them in response to your question specifically.

If you give me more details about your questions (i.e., re-ask them), I’ll be happy to give you a new reading recommendation, which might or might not be identical to the original one!

In response to my questions about group theory, there was something you recommended I read, but I can’t seem to remember it (sounded something like ‘molonov’?). Can you remind me? Thanks.