[wenc]

Author also graduated high school from Austria early, and finished a Berkeley math degree in 2 years. I’d say author is gifted.

That said, technical PhDs often require a combination of raw mental horsepower, persistence and luck. (Working for the right advisor in a promising area)

I brought about the same smarts as my peers but they graduated in 5 years whereas I did 8 years because I didn’t have the most promising area of research plus I got unlucky.