5 ms·

Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name

87 points by saturnian 9y ago

balsam 9y ago
A layter version (this pdf is cited as [34]) http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-name http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-...
- mattkrause 9y ago
  Yes! If you're interested, read this instead. The organization and writing has been cleaned up.
- dang 9y ago
  Thanks! Url (belatedly) changed from http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf.
danidiaz 9y ago
The Grothendieck song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1S3tFaImo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1S3tFaImo
mattkrause 9y ago
The title here is absolutely useless. For those who are curious, the article is a biography of Alexander Grothendieck, a mathematician.
- dbranes 9y ago
  No we should not suffix the name of every person in post titles with their occupation. Grothendieck is one of the most influential mathematicians of the last century. This is like demanding clarifications like "this article is about Mark Zuckerburg, a CEO"
  - a3_nm 9y ago
    Even if you know who Gronthendieck is, the title is surprisingly unhelpful.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - mathgenius 9y ago
      The title invoked in me a state of mystery, which is perhaps exactly the right way to approach this subject.
      - klipt 9y ago
        As does all clickbait. "You won't believe what happens next!" "Doctors hate her!" Ooh, mysterious, why do doctors hate her?
        _ah 9y ago
        She was shocked. It's an easy trick, discovered by a mom.
      - thedailymail 9y ago
        I agree that the title was intriguing and although I am not fluent in mathematics at the level discussed in the article, I found the biographical sections very interesting and the writing style to be engaging. Particularly interesting were the comparisons with Boltzmann and Cantor, apparently also "tortured" or at least socially eccentric, geniuses. My understanding of their work is limited but the author of this article seemed to allude to the risks of, or at least correlations with, psychological instability and research at the extreme frontiers of mathematics. (I know this notion is a tired cliche, but still...) If anyone out there has an understanding of how Grothendieck "deepened the concept of a geometric point" and feels the urge to explain it in layman terms, I have an upvote for you!
    - dbranes 9y ago
      It's literally word for word the title of the linked article, which makes it a reasonable choice for a title, no?
- ghshephard 9y ago
  Thanks - I was certain that the URL and the Title had been messed up - and spent a fruitless 5 or so minutes trying to find the actual article before giving up and coming to the comments. The article has nothing to do with a country.
  - mattkrause 9y ago
    That was why I clicked through also--I was expecting some sort of historical oddity!
- jholman 9y ago
  Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there", do you go looking for "Yesterday" in an atlas? Closer to home, after I read Yegge's Execution In The Kingdom Of Nouns I tried to book a vacation there, but the travel agent made fun of me.
  - nextlevelwizard 9y ago
    Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been about some actual forgotten country where only name of a city or something survived? Obviously you can use whatever title you want and be as poetic as you like, but at least in my mind I was going to a very different place than "mathematician". As for your examples, they don't really fit, since we have way more context about them. If you are going to see a movie with a title "No country for old men", you can be pretty sure that the title wont be literal (unless it's an comedy movie, in which case it might be). As for the quote, most people get that "past" is past and not some place and certainly they are not going to start looking for "yesterday" like you suggest, that's just stupid of you to even suggest. Anyone who is aware that "yesterday" is part of "past" already knows what you are talking about. However most people do not know who or even what Grothendieck, to me it doesn't even seem like a name of a person, but that's just me. EDIT: You can downvote me all you want, but unless you can come up with coherent response, please think twice why you are downvoting.
  - Sunset 9y ago
    Yes. Actually.
  - mattkrause 9y ago
    Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist. It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothendieck and mathematical motivation" would be better, I think.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

87 points by saturnian 9y ago

A layter version (this pdf is cited as [34]) http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-name http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-...

mattkrause 9y ago
Yes! If you're interested, read this instead. The organization and writing has been cleaned up.
dang 9y ago
Thanks! Url (belatedly) changed from http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf.

danidiaz 9y ago

The Grothendieck song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1S3tFaImo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1S3tFaImo

mattkrause 9y ago

The title here is absolutely useless. For those who are curious, the article is a biography of Alexander Grothendieck, a mathematician.

dbranes 9y ago
No we should not suffix the name of every person in post titles with their occupation. Grothendieck is one of the most influential mathematicians of the last century. This is like demanding clarifications like "this article is about Mark Zuckerburg, a CEO"
- a3_nm 9y ago
  Even if you know who Gronthendieck is, the title is surprisingly unhelpful.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - mathgenius 9y ago
    The title invoked in me a state of mystery, which is perhaps exactly the right way to approach this subject.
    - klipt 9y ago
      As does all clickbait. "You won't believe what happens next!" "Doctors hate her!" Ooh, mysterious, why do doctors hate her?
      - _ah 9y ago
        She was shocked. It's an easy trick, discovered by a mom.
    - thedailymail 9y ago
      I agree that the title was intriguing and although I am not fluent in mathematics at the level discussed in the article, I found the biographical sections very interesting and the writing style to be engaging. Particularly interesting were the comparisons with Boltzmann and Cantor, apparently also "tortured" or at least socially eccentric, geniuses. My understanding of their work is limited but the author of this article seemed to allude to the risks of, or at least correlations with, psychological instability and research at the extreme frontiers of mathematics. (I know this notion is a tired cliche, but still...) If anyone out there has an understanding of how Grothendieck "deepened the concept of a geometric point" and feels the urge to explain it in layman terms, I have an upvote for you!
  - dbranes 9y ago
    It's literally word for word the title of the linked article, which makes it a reasonable choice for a title, no?
ghshephard 9y ago
Thanks - I was certain that the URL and the Title had been messed up - and spent a fruitless 5 or so minutes trying to find the actual article before giving up and coming to the comments. The article has nothing to do with a country.
- mattkrause 9y ago
  That was why I clicked through also--I was expecting some sort of historical oddity!
jholman 9y ago
Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there", do you go looking for "Yesterday" in an atlas? Closer to home, after I read Yegge's Execution In The Kingdom Of Nouns I tried to book a vacation there, but the travel agent made fun of me.
- nextlevelwizard 9y ago
  Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been about some actual forgotten country where only name of a city or something survived? Obviously you can use whatever title you want and be as poetic as you like, but at least in my mind I was going to a very different place than "mathematician". As for your examples, they don't really fit, since we have way more context about them. If you are going to see a movie with a title "No country for old men", you can be pretty sure that the title wont be literal (unless it's an comedy movie, in which case it might be). As for the quote, most people get that "past" is past and not some place and certainly they are not going to start looking for "yesterday" like you suggest, that's just stupid of you to even suggest. Anyone who is aware that "yesterday" is part of "past" already knows what you are talking about. However most people do not know who or even what Grothendieck, to me it doesn't even seem like a name of a person, but that's just me. EDIT: You can downvote me all you want, but unless you can come up with coherent response, please think twice why you are downvoting.
- Sunset 9y ago
  Yes. Actually.
- mattkrause 9y ago
  Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist. It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothendieck and mathematical motivation" would be better, I think.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]