[jongraehl]

The author is full of stupid snark. Clearly Snowden is an exceptional individual; learning that he used to be a janitor, or whatever, shouldn't cause us to throw away all the evidence we have about him and double-take "they promoted a janitor?".

Perhaps the quality of his work matched his obviously high character, regardless of his initial lack of formal credential. This is IT we're talking about - classes are a joke.

[saosebastiao]

This was the revulsion I felt as I read this as well. I used to be a truck driver. I am no longer a truck driver. Absolutely nothing about where I was says anything about who I am, how qualified I am to be who I am, nor where I am going. Lets not forget a previous owner of Slate, MSN...founded by the richest college dropout in the world.

[Terretta]

The janitor making good, solving the famous math conjecture on the blackboard, is a Hollywood trope. Not sure why Slate is so adamant that the guy's story is a disqualifier.

We don't know his story yet but this much is certain: he is by definition an exceptional individual.

[horacio]

It's not only a Good Will Hunting trope, but has a very relevant, very current real-life example that came to light a few weeks ago.

Tom Zhang, who now teaches at the University of New Hampshire, recently published a proof of the mathematically-famous twin prime conjecture for certain prime number pairs.

For quite some time, Zhang couldn't find work as a mathematician, and during that period, he worked as a Subway fast-food restaurant worker.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/that-figures-profe...

I believe I understand the point that Manjoo is making in his article, but both his choice of example, and the specific derogatory language he uses to express his reaction, makes it seem to me that he has some specific ax to grind about the nature of technical credentials and their social cachet.

[mahyarm]

Most Americans probably worked some minimum wage job at a food or retail establishment too as their first job too. I don't know where the shock comes from.

[krakensden]

Note the author- essentially everything he writes is like this.

[mieses]

Not surprising at all coming from Slate and this author.