Scott Aaronson - Quantum Computing, Complexity, and Creativity

**Scott Aaronson** (0:01)
It might take years or decades to become an expert in a whole field, 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. So try to become the world expert on something, you know, even something very very narrow.

**Dwarkesh Patel** (0:33)
So, Professor Aaronson, can you tell us a bit about your early 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 that?

**Scott Aaronson** (0:43)
Yeah, well, I didn't really graduate high school when I was 15 I got a GED from New York State. But I was not happy in high school for several reasons. I mean, just socially, academically, and I wanted to get out. And I mean, I was in a weird situation because I went to public school in the US for junior high and then in Pennsylvania, actually. And then my parents moved to Hong Kong. I lived in Hong Kong for one year because my dad was working there. And because of the miss, I went to an American international school there, but because of a mismatch between the way they did things in the US and in Hong Kong, I was not able to do math. That was appropriate, I guess. I had always been sort of ahead in math. And the only way to deal with that was for me to skip a grade and skip and go to the high school. And once I had done that, that was sort of something flipped for me, right? That I could actually do this. I could get out of this environment where I really wanted to be was college, right?
I wanted to be in a place where, and of course, I somewhat had an idealistic view of what college was, but a place where ideas would matter more than popularity and where you would be able to choose what to study and advance at your own pace and all of these wonderful things. And so then I returned from Hong Kong to the US and was in a public high school for a year. And as I said, I didn't like it. And then I ran out of math to take. I took the AP Calculus and then my parents suggested to the school, well, why doesn't he just do online learning, do like differential equations or whatever with the Stanford EPGY program, where you can do these things.
And my parents said they would pay for it. The school said, no, that's, you know, and so I sort of seized on that as my excuse. I think I just seen a brochure for a place called the Clarkson School in upstate New York, which is a part of Clarkson University. But you can live there for a year and take college courses.
But it's for high school students. So I said, even knowing very little about this, I think I want to give this a try. And my parents allowed me to do that. We had the car all packed up to drive there.
And when we were about to leave, then finally there was one actually math teacher at my own high school who was very, very good and who was trying to advocate for me. And he was like, OK, guess what? I just got it so that Scott can take the EPGY program. And we said, too late, sorry.
And so I went to Clarkson and I generally had a very good experience there. I mean, socially, there were a lot of the same problems as at high school. But at least I was able to take courses that were a lot more interesting.
I was able to sort of meet professors, get started doing research. And you apply from...
The idea is that after a year at this Clarkson program, then you apply to colleges as a freshman, but with a year of college credit. So I did that.
I was very disappointed at the time at how things turned out, because I got rejected from almost every college that I applied to. I had a very weird background. But I was lucky that Cornell and Carnegie Mellon were kind enough to accept me. And so I decided to go to Cornell. But then there was one problem that they required a high school diploma before you could enroll there, which I didn't have.
And so we realized that I needed a GED from... Well, okay, my old high school, oftentimes one's old high school will just give you a diploma after you've gone to Clarkston. My high school would not do that because they said I was missing Phys Ed. I would have to spend that summer doing Phys Ed. And then New York State said we can't give him a GED because you have to be 17 to have a GED and he's 15 And my mom eventually convinced them to make an exception and give me a GED. So then I went to Cornell. I mean, I've met other people who were homeschooled, who actually did things that were more radical than what I did. I mean, I was accelerated by three years. That was all. And then after I was in college, I didn't really accelerate anymore because I felt like I was in an environment where I wanted to be. And from now on, the main limitations were internal. They were no longer external.