> Mathematics traditionally has a macho ethos Have you actually hung around with some mathematicians? I find them to be on the whole quite a humble bunch of pe

> Mathematics traditionally has a macho ethos Have you actually hung around with some mathematicians? I find them to be on the whole quite a humble bunch of people. My feeling is that any hubris is burnt up in all of the great suffering that it takes to do good mathematics. I think the machos all migrated to physics in the first half of the 20th century. Those guys are full of "big talkers". Have you ever heard of a physicist refusing the Nobel prize? No, but it has happened (more than once i think) for the Fields medal.