> In only a year and a half she went from pre-algebra to grad QM while being a writer at NYT
I found this hard to believe, so I looked it up. It appears she _did_ go from pre-algebra to grad quantum within a short time [1], but that was many years before she joined NYTimes in 2018.
I still find it implausible. Would a university realistically allow someone who didn't know anything beyond 6th-grade math (in her own words) to sign up for such an accelerated syllabus that she went from doing introductory physics to quantum field theory in 6 months (also according to her own account)?
I found this hard to believe, so I looked it up. It appears she _did_ go from pre-algebra to grad quantum within a short time [1], but that was many years before she joined NYTimes in 2018.
[1] https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2016/8/26/from-the-fledgli...