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...