"Because a good mentor at least needs to know the difficulties of a research direction and inspire their students. This is a problem you'll never be able to solve. From your perspective, it's nearly impossible to find any difficulty. And if you do notice a difficulty, it might be a peak that your students will never be able to reach in their lifetime. Ha ha..."
Edward Whitten laughed as he spoke.
It wasn't a schadenfreude laugh, but rather one tinged with self-mockery; he even quickly added, "Do you know why Dugen can teach so many good students? It's because he himself isn't one of those researchers with great ability and talent, so he's very good at inspiring others.
Even now, his involvement in research isn't that high. More often, he's using his reputation to help secure funding. He's always been dissatisfied with the Fields Medal committee for not awarding him, but in reality, the committee was fair; he didn't have many groundbreaking results."
