June Huh dropped out to become a poet, now he’s won a Fields Medal (2022)
75 comments
·May 7, 2025creakingstairs
DrBenCarson
That is very sad but understandable, incentivize is hard to overcome
Universities should be looking at more and discouraging 1 dimensional applicants
331c8c71
> Universities should be looking at more and discouraging 1 dimensional applicants
Sure. Like there is a whole field of consultants who would help your child to develop a suitable profile.
Moreover, I the US I heard there is an industry for generating experiences for the "young minds" (if their parents are rich enough) e.g. discovering rennaissance via a trip to Italy etc.
Also remember the tennis scam for admissions? Gordon Ernst from Georgetown U.
DrBenCarson
Look I’m a first generation American with a sister 3 years younger. We grew up in poverty in the 2008 aftermath. Like food stamps and stretching leftovers by mixing them with pasta broke
I navigated the system alone for myself then again to help her after I had learned from all my college friends. We both went to “prestigious private schools” with single digit acceptance rates and have similarly “prestigious” jobs
Here’s the truth: yes, like everything else in this world it’s a LOT easier with money. But it’s not impossible if you’re willing to understand the expectations and put in the work to meet them.
asdsadasdasd123
this whole thing is like a crypto currency exercise where you input x compute for an expected value of y prestige points over 3 yrs
charcircuit
If they look at more than it makes sense to spend more time improving all of those aspects instead of wasting time at school.
DrBenCarson
Which is why American universities require a HS diploma and good grades in a variety of subjects
cwmoore
Take the weekend off :)
rendall
> Take the weekend off :)
> https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4064129
How does this paper relate to GP's comment?
dang
Related:
He dropped out to become a poet – now he’s won a Fields Medal (2022) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37010709 - Aug 2023 (75 comments)
He dropped out to become a poet – now he’s won a Fields Medal - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31985400 - July 2022 (136 comments)
fjfaase
I wonder if the recurrence equations for the number of spanning trees in the GxP_n graphs also meet the log recuirement.
CommenterPerson
I share quite a few of his quirks. I was also rejected by most of the grad schools I applied to. So how come I didn't amount to anything?
Seriously, a well written article including the accessible explanations of his work. Plus, LoL funny. Thank you.
OisinMoran
It's not over yet my friend
wafflemaker
I've started my bachelor's at 35y, last year. Still waiting for grade on last exam, but it looks like after 4 tries (since 2008) I finally passed the first semester.
mmooss
Congratulations! That takes so much courage - more than most of your classmates have ever had to exercise. The next semester should be easier!
atonse
Congrats. You’ll get there! Just take it one semester at a time.
mlsu
I did this too, a little before you (started around 27ish)
The B.S. changed my life. I graduated, you will too.
jaredhansen
This is the friendliest comment I've seen on the World Wide Web today. Thank you for posting.
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jebarker
Accelerated hero's journey.
dgfitz
> he dropped out of high school to become a poet.
Not even college, high school. Really misleading/unfortunate title.
As an aside, why would anyone need to drop out of anything to become a poet?
gyomu
In case you’re asking the question not rhetorically - this is the kind of thing you can afford to do when you have an extremely strong/privileged support system.
It’s myth-making, and shouldn’t be confused with “dropping out to take care of your sick parent” or “dropping out and going to work at McDonald’s”.
signatoremo
> the kind of thing you can afford to do when you have an extremely strong/privileged support system.
Are you talking about his family specifically, or South Korea in general? What makes it extremely strong or privileged?
Barrin92
>What makes it extremely strong or privileged?
The fact that his parents were math and literature professors who entertained him dropping out of school to write poetry. If I had done that my parents would have offered me exactly three choices, get a job, go back to school, or pack your bags and pay your own rent which would have forced me to get a job, understandably so because as working class people they didn't have the resources to sponsor me for another decade while I go soul searching
melling
I’m not familiar with the privileged support system in South Korea. Is it different than in the US or Europe?
I believe Einstein dropped out of high school and traveled a bit through Italy.
We definitely need a world where more young people can drop out for a few years.
jvkersch
The educational track in South Korea is extremely competitive, and everything hinges on how well you do on the Suneung (a kind of SAT on steroids). If you drop out, it is usually because you have intergenerational wealth, exceptional non-scholastic talents, or a route to study/work abroad.
DetroitThrow
It feels disengenuous if you're seriously stating you're not familiar with how people with stable families and familial wealth have a much larger level of freedom in their choices to pursue the arts compared the average person.
cma
From the article it sounds like he was able to do something like the GED and knew he would be attending college later in South Korea still.
Where's the myth making?
gyomu
The exercise of how one drops out of the first year of high school to “become a poet”, gets a GED, and then proceeds to enter one of the top universities in Korea (notorious for its particularly cutthroat academic culture) right on time at 19 is left to the reader.
beyonddream
what is the GED you are referring to here ?
conception
To spend more time on it.
dgfitz
Spend more time on what, exactly? Writing poetry actively, all day, every day? That’s a lot of writing.
jjallen
How often do people become very good at something without spending the vast majority of their time on it for a long time?
iterance
I do not think you are aware that most people's process of writing good poetry is quite involved. It's okay not to understand, but be cautious about implying that another person's artistic work could be done in a spare hour here or there between coursework. It is disrespectful to the hard work of the written word.
eviks
It can also involve a lot of reading and thinking, also stuff you need time for
dhosek
I was thinking that this was my path, I was a Math major (well actually Math-English double major) and I dropped out to focus on English. Of course I never got a Field Medal (or much success as a poet for that matter).
mmooss
Sounds great. You don't need a Fields Medal for life to be worthwhile, or it's hopeless for all of humanity.
senderista
Joseph Brodsky dropped out of communism to become a poet, which did not amuse the authorities.
fromMars
This story is a bit of a misnomer when you look deeper. His dad is a statistics professor and he was mentored by well known mathematician in undergraduate so it's not like he didn't have a lot of schooling.
haiku2077
I don't think his dad helped him that much? The article says his dad gave up on trying to teach him.
fromMars
We can't really know for sure. We have the anecdote about the workbook but what about earlier and did he absorb any of his dad's teachings or aptitude by osmosis.
Even if we accept he didn't he still went to college and had an unusual experience as an undergrad in being mentored by an excellent mathematician.
That he took a gap year in h.s. doesn't seem that noteworthy to me.
welldonehn
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Quenby
[dead]
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monkeyelite
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cma
Did you read the article? It doesn't say anything like he just woke up one day and changed majors, but that he made a connection in a class that most people dropped out of with a research professor.
Alex_001
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It wasn’t the case for him but I’d like people to also note that in Korea, one of the strategy for getting into good universities is to actually drop out of high school and grind for the national exam by going to cram schools (hagwon)
People do this because there are certain admission categories where the university only looks at the test results. So they go “okay, by not going to school, my child can fully focus on exam instead of wasting time on useless subjects like art and PE. And school math curriculum is too easy anyway”
This really saddens me because schools should be more than gateways to universities, but I digress.