Jeez, that guy was full of himself though. Looks like 14 years later he isn't the roaring startup success story he predicted.

How do you know that? Success can be measured in many ways, many of them not public.

You think he has a secret successful startup? Lol

I've looked through some of those comments, and I don't understand what is going on. Can you help, please?

Someone was trying to knock cperciva down a peg or two as he was boasting about something higher up in the thread. The comment being something to the effect of, “have you won a Putnam? If not, stop talking.” The Putnam is an undergraduate mathematics competition. It’s prestigious to win.

Colin was a Putnam fellow (top 5 scorers) in 1999.

All in all, it was a pretty funny exchange at the time and quickly stopped the argument. Don’t assume that the person you’re talking with here is an idiot. It really demonstrates how HN users are varied with significant expertise in many areas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowell_Putnam_Mathem...