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Good for him. Having money would disrupt his life and set back his work. I'm waiting to see what he comes up with next.
by tlb 17y ago
Good for him. Having money would disrupt his life and set back his work. I'm waiting to see what he comes up with next.
- cynicalkane 17y agoIt's strange that people allow their lives to be disrupted by money. It seems like if you won a million, you can continue living the life you have now plus $1 million in CDs or something. To me, the negative effect that windfall amounts of money have on a lot of people is the barest example of how people often function better under constraints. Living freely is hard.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- praptak 17y ago"It seems like if you won a million, you can continue living the life you have now plus $1 million in CDs or something." Maybe if nobody knows that you've got the million (not the case here.) Otherwise the money may draw unwanted attention - "friends" asking you to lend them some or even criminals trying to convince you to part with the money.
- iskander 17y agoThis is especially a problem in Russia, where having even modest sums can draw the attention of local goons. I don't think being a famous mathematician is any protection from having Grisha the neighborhood limb breaker show up at your door.
- rdtsc 17y agoI never thought of it that way. But that is certainly a interesting angle to it. He might be puting himself and his mom in danger if others thought he has a $1m. Anyone in Russia who has that kind of money also has body guards and private mansions with tall electrified fences.
- borism 17y agoNot that he's any safer if he doesn't accept the money - local limb breaker may come and try to convince him to take it or more probably won't even know whether he accepted or not.
- petercooper 17y agoMy life plays the lottery and I've thought about this stuff before. I believe you have to do publicity here and there's no way I'd want to live where I do now with people knowing what we look like and how much we won. (Not that I would anyway, I'd be throwing $500k down on an EB-5 and moving all of our asses to California. But still..)
- Hexstream 17y agoCan you really get all that with $1m and still have some money left?...
- hrabago 17y agoThis reminds me of a story about how Manu Ginobili's family, who refused to move to the US, has to live with police protection to keep from being kidnapped. I can't find the exact story I read from before, though. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1839968 http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1839968
- nearestneighbor 17y agoRelevant clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9OfztENArE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9OfztENArE
- rdtsc 17y agoHe has abandonded mathematics. I don't know what he works on now. Currently he mentions that he has everything he wants and doesn't want to be paraded like an animal in the zoo for everyone to see. He doesn't want money and honors. What has alienated him from mathematics is others dishonesty. Read the "Manifold Destiny" article from New Yorker by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2). In there you'll find a reference to Shing-Tung Yau. Quote from the article: As for Yau, Perelman said, “I can’t say I’m outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest.”
- raganwald 17y agoA tremendous article, thank you for the link.
- caxap 17y agoNext time when I want to publish a paper, I will take the work of someone else, claim that it's unreadable and difficult to understand, "clarify" parts that were unreadable, and put my name on it. I just cannot believe that things like that are common practice for some researchers. That was a great read, thanks.
- raganwald 17y agoAnd then use your ill-gotten fame to seek out grants and funding from governments and philanthropists to further your goals.
- dschobel 17y agoSet back his work? From every public account available the man has completely given up mathematics.
- qjz 17y agoThere is other work besides mathematics.
- fnid2 17y agoIt's amazing how anti-content this group is. The man doesn't want more money and people are attacking him. Isn't that odd? I admire him.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- jimmyjim 17y agoIt is selfish for the intellectually gifted to not give back the gifts of new knowledge. Perelman has given fruits, but being as selfish as he is now makes him as good as dead. Imagine if Ramanujan had went back to India and given up just after the Ramanujan conjecture. Or if Erdos had called it quits shortly after working on the probabilistic method.
- borism 17y agoit's a personal choice - nothing for us to be judgmental about.
- pavs 17y agoHow is he selfish? He doesn't owe anyone anything. > Perelman has given fruits, but being as selfish as he is now makes him as good as dead. This is one of the dumbest and offensive thing I have read here in YN. > Imagine if Ramanujan had went back to India and given up just after the Ramanujan conjecture. Or if Erdos had called it quits shortly after working on the probabilistic method. And what would happen? Nothing. Humanity will still be here without their contribution.