4 ms·
"You shouldn't have mentioned the stuff about Benzedrine. It's not that you got it wrong. It's just that I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mat
by kwamenum86 16y ago
"You shouldn't have mentioned the stuff about Benzedrine. It's not that you got it wrong. It's just that I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics to think that they have to take drugs to succeed."
Paul Erdos, re: a 1987 Atlantic Monthly article profiling his work
- andreyf 16y agoIsn't that quote a bit hypocritical?
- stingraycharles 16y agoIt's like telling your kids you don't have to smoke to be cool, while smoking daily yourself. It's not very convincing, but not hypocritical either.
- VMG 16y agoHe started taking it it because of his depression, not because he wanted to boost his productivity - he was devastated after his mother died.
- gcanyon 16y agoAt some point he was bet that he couldn't go without it; he did, but then said that doing so had set back mathematics for as long as he had been off the drugs. So I'd say he thought it boosted his productivity.
- bitwize 16y agoUppers : mathematics :: steroids : baseball. We can give moralistic lip service to "Winners Don't Use Drugs" but at the cutting edge of today's best of the best, when performance actually counts you'll find that the real winners actually do have chemical help...