Quoting Jake Boggan
Quoting Jake Boggan
Jake Boggan, who once moved to Budapest to research graph theory, said he invested 24 years and thousands of hours, on and off, into the Barnette conjecture, and felt deeply conflicted upon learning it was reportedly proven in openai/math problem 180. He described the feeling as "as sad as hearing an ex-girlfriend suddenly died in a car crash," and guessed many others would feel equally mixed tonight.
7th October 2026
I was a graph theory junkie long ago and even moved to Budapest for awhile to study among the greats. While I was there I started working on Barnette's Conjecture which came to occupy my thoughts over the next 24 years of my life, on and off as I worked in many different fields. Last summer I even thought for a few days that I had actually solved it.
But it's supposedly proven here - problem 180. I don't know what to think exactly. I spent thousands of hours on that problem. I really enjoyed it. Hearing that it is solved somehow makes me sad in a far-off way, like hearing an ex-girlfriend died suddenly in a car crash. I don't know, there's probably a lot of people feeling odd emotions tonight.
— Jake Boggan, Hacker News comment on openai/math
Source: Simon Willison · simonwillison.net