Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by esafak 889 days ago
What is the argument; that math competitions are easy for computers but hard for humans?
3 comments

Like I said, it's got nothing to do with computers or AI. This point of view predates any kind of AI that would be capable of doing either.

The analogy is as follows. Like with with leetcode & job interviews is as follows, to excel at math competitions one must grind problems and learn tricks, in order to quickly solve problems in a high pressure environment. And, just like how solving leetcode problems is pretty different than what a typical computer scientist or software engineer does, doing math competitions is pretty different than what a typical mathematician does.

The usual argument is:

We test developer skill by giving them leetcode problems, but leetcode while requiring programming skill is nothing like a real programmer's job.

It's a quote from the article. The argument is naturally there.
I was referring to your leetcode analogy; those too are hard for humans.
No, the analogue of competition math here is writing programs to solve leetcode problems: they emphasize quickly and reliably applying known tools, not developing new ones.