Controversy Over 140-Year-Old Math Problem

sciencehabit writes "British mathematician Darren Crowdy has been bragging all week about how he solved a 140-year-old math problem, as we discussed a few days ago. But three American mathematicians say they had the critical idea first."

Comments

I get it

[Anonymous Coward]

"I solved this problem, here's the solution." "But we *thought* of it first."

Darren isn't one to brag

[GuyMannDude]

I object to the use of the word 'bragging' in the summary. I went to grad school with Darren (his office was 3 doors down from mine) and he was a great all-around guy. He was someone you could joke around with and I never saw any indication of him being a braggard. It's possible that he's changed significantly in the last 10 years, but I see nothing in TFA that would suggest this. He made what is potentially a significant contribution. Why shouldn't he be aloud to be proud of it?

GMD

But he's working solo

[Xocet_00]

The article seems to indicate that he's working on his own. I agree that overusing things like "I", "me" and "my" can sound a lot like bragging (whereas "We", "ours", etc. does not) but if he really was working solo, he wouldn't need to phrase it any other way, neh?

To be fair, one should probably not be using subjective tenses all that much in academic writing anyway.

Re:you don't win the waffle iron . . .

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

You really think most people think credit should be determined based upon who's someone's parents were? Or there social standing? I don't know how to figure either of those out in this day and age.

You must have translated that in your head to the prestige of the university someone went to or number of papers written. That I can see many people actually using today, to my dismay. If being a professor was about more than numbers of papers written in a given time period, I would have considered it as a career option.

Re:It wasn't obvious until it was pointed out

[urcreepyneighbor]

Basicaslly, the American Team was clueless until someone pointed out the obvious to them, now they want the credit. Fail. Quick! Patent it and make money!

Re:-50 off-topic

[SparkleMotion88]

That's simple: it's because Bob=Dave for sufficiently Bob-ish Dave.

Re:-50 off-topic

[japhmi]

Moral of the story:
It's not just philosophy majors who end up as waitresses.