Your heart just breaks for those kids competing in the IMO. Their peers from other nations are going to go to college, maybe stick with math but they have a million opportunities ahead of them to use their talents. Meanwhile these kids are getting conscripted into being crooks.
I really can’t imagine how bitter that would make me feel.
> Meanwhile these kids are getting conscripted into being crooks
They're not crooks from their perspective. They're indoctrinated into hating the west, remember. As far as they're concerned they're likely to feel they're serving their nation and doing a good deed.
Very tangential, but the story of Jim Simons is interesting.
He was an American cryptographer who took a very public stance against the Vietnam War. Being forced to leave, he went and set up the world's most successful hedge fund, became a billionaire and led the nerdification of trading.
There are lots of really really interesting interviews with him on YouTube.
> Meanwhile these kids are getting conscripted into being crooks.
> I really can’t imagine how bitter that would make me feel.
That's how I feel about smart CS kids getting duped into working for the CIA or NSA, but I have less sympathy with those because they're coerced with cozy paychecks rather than the implied threat of literally being dragged in at gunpoint.
I really can’t imagine how bitter that would make me feel.