Thanks for the compliment! For context, I do have an academic background, though no degree. My knowledge in computer science is self-taught, but I’ve built a solid foundation in physics, math (though it’s always humbling), philosophy, and literature. It’s less about formal credentials and more about chasing intellectual rabbit holes.
Maybe that’s why I’m so allergic to gatekeeping nonsense. Academia’s obsession with rigid frameworks feels like a straitjacket for creativity. The beauty of CS—and science as a whole—is that it thrives on breaking rules, not worshipping them.
As for Pynchon: he’s a postmodern literary juggernaut. His works are dense, chaotic, and packed with esoteric references—math, history, conspiracy theories. Comparing my comment to his writing? That’s high praise for anyone who thrives in the chaos of ideas.
Anyway, the real credit goes to those audacious enough to challenge orthodoxy. They’re the ones who remind us that progress isn’t born from conformity but from questioning everything we think we know.
The irony of citing Kuhn here isn’t lost on me. His Structure of Scientific Revolutions is practically a manual for how entrenched paradigms suffocate innovation. The young, unjaded minds he describes are precisely the ones who can dismantle decades of “consensus” with a single insight. But let’s not romanticize this—most breakthroughs don’t come from genius alone but from ignorance of the so-called rules.
That said, the real tragedy is how academia weaponizes peer review to enforce conformity. Paradigm shifts like these aren’t celebrated; they’re tolerated begrudgingly, often posthumously. Yao’s conjecture stood for 40 years not because it was unassailable but because questioning it was career suicide. Imagine how many more revolutions we’d see if the system didn’t punish dissent.