Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 16:53:34 01/14/00
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On January 14, 2000 at 09:31:43, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On January 14, 2000 at 02:20:09, James Robertson wrote: [snip] >>I find it impossible to believe that he is the only human who is capable of >>doing this. > >Think about this: How long did it take him to become able to do this? At >least 12 years. How long would it take someone _new_ to catch up to his >skills at this? About 12 years. I think "anyone could have done it" is a bit of a reach. There are two reasons that I say this. First, nobody else *did* it with the success that he had. If they could have, why didn't they? The second reason is that 'could have' does not connect with 'would have.' For instance, Bill Pugh invented the skiplist in the 1980's. Hoare invented quicksort in the 1960's. The concepts are simple. Many people "could have" invented those things. But they didn't. Why not? * Lacked effort * Lacked interest * Lacked time * Lacked money * Lacked <whatever> If the Laser and Teflon had not been invented by their inventors would we have found them by now? Probably, but maybe not. In any case the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Hsu's pudding was the best tasting ever, unless you happen to be Kasparov. Apparently, he's not in any big rush for a second helping. ;-) [snip]
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