Absolutely horrid.
I also have stories about three extraordinary people... who hate getting prizes.
Grigori Perelman
Russian mathematican. Solved the Poincare conjecture, which I don't understand, but is apparently the greatest feat in mathematics for a long, long time. He was a shoo-in for the Fields Medal, probably the highest award in mathematics. As is quite well-known, he declined the prize. In fact, he did not even bother to send his work for publication. He just uploaded his proofs, and left the rest of the world in shock and awe.
He's extremely reclusive, unemployed (left his academic post), lives with his elderly mum and sister, and has more or less ceased to communicate with the rest of the world. It's a bit difficult to isolate yourself these days, so here's a picture of him taking the subway.
Perhaps he was just lazy to travel to Madrid to collect the prize.
Says the man, "It was completely irrelevant for me...Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."
Maybe a more practical prize would move him. After all, plane tickets from Russia are not very cheap. The Poincare conjecture happens to also be one of the seven Millennium Prize problems, i.e., the most devious mathematical problems known to humanity, which are worth $1,000,000 each. Actually, these problems are so difficult, the Clay Institute might as well have given a 1 gazillion dollar reward instead. Unfortunately for them, this crazy Russian did in fact solve the problem and they had to cough out the million dollars. However, Perelman, being himself, declined the money. In fact, he did not even attend the symposium that was held to celebrate his proof!
Alexander Grothendieck
Another mathematician whose work I have no inking about. Apparently, mere mention of his name in mathematical circles would trigger an atmosphere of intimidation. According to a story that I read some time ago, he had little worldly possessions, and would stay at friends' homes as he travelled around to attend conferences. Furthermore, he was an anarchist, and had strong political views. Many people claim to have political convictions, but Grothendieck went so far as to travel to the forests around Hanoi to deliver lectures on category theory as a protest during the Vietnam War, while the city was being bombed! He also abandoned a high-profile post created for him because it was funded by the military-industrial complex.
Here's him (in shorts).
As is becoming mandatory among higher-level geniuses, he declined the Crafoord prize (although he took his Fields Medal). In he declination letter, he wrote,
Richard Feynman
Everyone knows him, and he was not quite as crazy, but he still did his physics at a strip bar...
I also have stories about three extraordinary people... who hate getting prizes.
Grigori Perelman
Russian mathematican. Solved the Poincare conjecture, which I don't understand, but is apparently the greatest feat in mathematics for a long, long time. He was a shoo-in for the Fields Medal, probably the highest award in mathematics. As is quite well-known, he declined the prize. In fact, he did not even bother to send his work for publication. He just uploaded his proofs, and left the rest of the world in shock and awe.
He's extremely reclusive, unemployed (left his academic post), lives with his elderly mum and sister, and has more or less ceased to communicate with the rest of the world. It's a bit difficult to isolate yourself these days, so here's a picture of him taking the subway.
Perhaps he was just lazy to travel to Madrid to collect the prize.
Says the man, "It was completely irrelevant for me...Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."
Maybe a more practical prize would move him. After all, plane tickets from Russia are not very cheap. The Poincare conjecture happens to also be one of the seven Millennium Prize problems, i.e., the most devious mathematical problems known to humanity, which are worth $1,000,000 each. Actually, these problems are so difficult, the Clay Institute might as well have given a 1 gazillion dollar reward instead. Unfortunately for them, this crazy Russian did in fact solve the problem and they had to cough out the million dollars. However, Perelman, being himself, declined the money. In fact, he did not even attend the symposium that was held to celebrate his proof!
Alexander Grothendieck
Another mathematician whose work I have no inking about. Apparently, mere mention of his name in mathematical circles would trigger an atmosphere of intimidation. According to a story that I read some time ago, he had little worldly possessions, and would stay at friends' homes as he travelled around to attend conferences. Furthermore, he was an anarchist, and had strong political views. Many people claim to have political convictions, but Grothendieck went so far as to travel to the forests around Hanoi to deliver lectures on category theory as a protest during the Vietnam War, while the city was being bombed! He also abandoned a high-profile post created for him because it was funded by the military-industrial complex.
Here's him (in shorts).
As is becoming mandatory among higher-level geniuses, he declined the Crafoord prize (although he took his Fields Medal). In he declination letter, he wrote,
"...My salary as professor, even my pension starting next October, is more than sufficient for my own material needs as well as those of my dependents; hence I have no need for money. As for the distinction given to some of my work on foundations, I am convinced that time is the only decisive test for the fertility of new ideas, or views. Fertility is measured by offspring, not by honors...
...But is it not clear that superabundance for some is only possible at the cost of the needs of others?"
...agreeing to participate in the game of prizes and rewards would also mean giving my approval to a spirit and trend in the scientific world that I vew as being fundamentally unhealthy, and moreover condemned to disappear soon, so suicidal are this spirit and trend, spiritually and even intellectually and materially."
He is still alive, but is stateless, and nobody really knows where he lives.
Everyone knows him, and he was not quite as crazy, but he still did his physics at a strip bar...
Perhaps coincidentally, they are all Jews.
