Scott Aaronson - Quantum Computing, Complexity, and Creativity

You know, it might take, you know, years or decades to become, you know, an expert like in a whole field. Uh, uh, uh, you know, and you might be very far from that. But it really doesn't take that long to become the world expert on one particular tiny little problem, right? And, um, you know, so, so try to, you know, become the world expert on, on something, you know, you know, even something very, very narrow. (instrumental music plays)

So Professor Aaronson, can you tell us a bit about your early j- journey? You were a young prodigy. You graduated high school at the age of 15, got your PhD at 22. Can you tell us about-

Um-

... that?

Yeah. Well, I, I didn't really graduate high school when I was 15. I got a GED, uh, from, from, from New York State. Uh, but, uh, I, um, I was not happy, uh, in, in high school for, for several reasons. I mean, uh, just, you know, socially, uh, academically, and I, I wanted to, uh, get out. And, uh, I mean, I, I had a, uh, I was in a weird situation because my, um, my... I went to, um, uh, public school, uh, in, in the US for, for, for junior high, and then... uh, in Pennsylvania actually. And then my parents, uh, uh, moved to Hong K- I, I lived in Hong Kong for one year-

Mm.

... uh, because, uh, my, my, my dad was working there. And, uh, because of the, uh, uh, mish... Uh, I, I went to an American international school there, but because of a mismatch between the way, uh, they say- they did things in the US and in Hong Kong, uh, you know, I was not able to do math, uh, that was, that was, uh, appropriate, I guess. I, I, you know, I had always been sort of ahead in math. And, uh, the only way to deal with that was for me to skip a, a grade and skip, and, and, and go to the high school. And once, um, once, once I'd done that, that was, that was sort of a, uh... You know, something, something flipped for me, right? That, you know, I, I could actually do this. I could, uh, uh, get out of this environment, you know? Where, where, where, where I really wanted to be was college, right? I wanted to be in a, um, in a, in a, in a place where, where, you know... Uh, uh, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and of course, you know, I, I, I somewhat, uh, uh, you know, had, had, had an idealistic view of what college was. But, you know, but a, a place where, where ideas would matter more than popularity, and, uh, uh, where, um, you know, you would be able to choose, uh, what to study and, and advance at your own pace and, you know, all of these, these wonderful things. Um, and, and, you know, so then I went... I, I returned from Hong Kong to the US and was in, uh, a public high school for, for a year. And, um, you know, as I said, I didn't like it. And, uh, you know, and, and then I, I ran out of math to take, right? I, I took the, uh, um, AP, uh, calculus. And, and then, um, the, um, uh... You know, my, my, my parents basically suggested to the school, uh, "Well, why doesn't he just, uh, uh, do, do online learning, right? And do like, uh, differential equations or whatever with the..." You know, the, the Stanford has this EPGY program, right? Where, uh, you can do these things. And, uh, and, you know, my parents said they would pay for it. Uh, the school said no. Uh, that, that's, you know... uh, uh, um, and, uh, so I, I sort of seized on that as my excuse. I, um, uh, um, uh, I, I, I think I had just seen a brochure for a place called the Clarkson School in Upstate New York, uh, which is a part of Clarkson University. But you can, uh, live there for a year and take college courses, um, you know, but it, it's, it's, uh, it's for high school students, right? Uh, so, uh, um, I said, you know, I... You know, you know, even knowing very little about this, I think, you know, I wanna, I wanna give this a try. And, uh, my, my, uh, parents, you know, allowed me to do that. You know, we had the car all, you know, packed up to drive there. And while, you know, when we were, uh, uh, about to leave, then finally, you know, there, there was one, you know, actually math teacher at my old high school who was very, very good, who was, you know, trying to advocate for me. And he was like, "Okay, I just... Guess what? You know, I, I just got it so that, so that Scott can take the, uh, the EPGY program." And we said, "Too late. Sorry." (laughs)