I think that design has the easiest application in something like corrugated cardboard, as the middle layer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miura_fold

This design is terrible for desks, they all end up sagging after a few years of use. Their "SANDSBERG" kitchen table is a much better choice for a desk, no cardboard and metal reinforced

That the construction method of most hollow-core doors in your house.

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

14yo won $25k for origami that holds 10k times its weight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871 - Dec 2025 (9 comments)

Also, ‘years’ tend to be a lot more hours for kids, and each hour yields more learning due to neuroplasticity. I learned so much faster at 15 than I do at 35. I know more now, which often more than makes up for slower learning, but I can’t learn difficult novel subjects in depth as fast as I once did.

I’m glad I learned OS in depth during high school via Gentoo linux. And engineering/physics/math in college. It’s very easy to assimilate any new knowledge which can be understood through those areas of first principles.

But learning more advanced math is quite a task now.

Also don't get hung up on "folded". He hasn't innovated a design (it was invented by a Japanese astrophysicist, Miura-Ori), merely measured sustainable load across different designs.

Rather than age, isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?

wtf, why lego, whhhy? "The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

edit: What, they geoblocked a ~1min clip, wow.

This is weight distribution on a flat plain. Think of Roman Arches. On a curved plain, weight distribution of THIS origami falls apart as pressure is added horizontally (not just vertically).

The top 30 finalists are listed here:

https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-project-showcase/

It looks like the top 10% from 6th to 8th grade Society of Science fairs are invited to participate. They are then selected down to a top 300[1] and a top 30.[2] You can find a project name for the top 300 and a paragraph on each of the top 30.

[1] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-top-300-junior-in... [2] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-finalists/

Gentoo is what really made Linux click for me, too. I'm still very, very glad for that and remain a loyal user to this day!

Although I've had to restrict it to the 2 desktop machines. Maybe I should give it a shot again on the laptops, now that binary packages are universally available...

I'm learning better now the older I get. More good'erer.

Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times? Of course you'll pick up on math and physics faster in high school than in college or postgrad, but that's because the problems get way, way harder as you progress. I've found that even in my late 30s I can still easily pick up new skills outside my field of expertise as long as I start with the basics that could also be picked up by a high-schooler. I started learning a new language last year and thanks to modern study apps, I actually find it easier today. Of course it will still take a long time to become an expert, but I'm not sure it would need more total hours than if I had started 20 years ago. It just gets more difficult to allocate the necessary hours for learning.

I don't know - i'm 33 ~ now - recently with AI learning is much easier - don't get me wrong I definitely won't say that the brain does not slow down - but I'd definitely argue that we have advantages over kids - be it discipline, knowing how to learn ; and stuff like that - for example let's take coq which is I suppose one of the hardest thing we can learn - you can decompose it in ways myself as a kid or as a 20yo wouldn't even be able to. What I mean is that there is a lot of complexities or stuff i would get stuck upon that I just fly over today and know I'm alright - much better ability to focus in a sense

Don't get hug up on "invented". Ruth Asawa registered for (1956) and received US patent 185,504 on June 16, 1959 at the suggestion of her professor, Buckminster Fuller.

https://theartian.com/ruth-asawa-patent-collaboration/

i hear he didn't even produce the paper himself

Being able to hold 10x the weight of paper doesn't sound so impressive that it would require an astrophysicist to invent it.

I was more ready to accept the headline if it had been invented by the kid.

Are you telling me you can't roll up 10 origami papers and stand them on a reasonably stable origami pattern?

"Miura" is the name of the astrophysicist. "Ori" (折り) just means "fold", as in "origami" = "fold+paper".

He literally did fold all the folds himself. He didn't even get an LLM to reskin VS Code for him and apply to Y Combinator.

> isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?

No. It’s a sign of drive and discipline.

The latter, specifically the focus element, overlaps with autism. But more broadly it does not. (There are a lot of impressive teenagers applying themselves diligently to impressive ends. Most of them are not on the spectrum, though I suspect mild autism is slightly over-represented in that set.)

And this is all you can come up with this story?

You're assuming that autism is always going to be a disadvantage. In fact, the obsessive focus mirrors scientific practice. Good luck to him, I respect him.

> Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times?

I have ;-) far too many times! Even going back and taking undergrad math coursework that my engineering curriculum didn't have like Discrete Math or Statistics got a lot harder than calculus / differential equations was when I was younger. I felt like I got less out of each hour, and also couldn't put in as many hours - not just because I have more responsibilities, but also because my brain just gets tired after fewer hours.

I learned coq as a teenager because the name was funny and one defined everything in terms of the `succ` function.

Never underestimate our motivation.

Not all autism presents with intense narrow interests, and not all expressions of intense narrow interest are autism.

Would you say the same for a teenage sports prodigy?

I live in the U.S.: I can watch it.

What is "your country?"

it's 10k, 10,000, not 10

Of course. But obviously I wouldn't be referring to those other types of autism in this case. Why would I?

It's Lego Masters USA (Fox), rather than the Lego company itself, so I imagine they're being extra-careful with licensing.

I'm in the UK and it's geoblocked for me.

lol

that makes way more sense

not enough coffee bcak