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Erdős didn't let responsibilities get in the way. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

pakitan 7y ago
> Erdős never married and had no children
- gerbilly 7y ago
  OP is probably thinking of Euler, who according to a contemporary often worked: "with a child on his knees, a cat on his back "
- jgtrosh 7y ago
  Not taking responsibility is one way of not letting responsibilities get in the way
- rat87 7y ago
  He couchsurfed his friends homes, collaborating on math papers with them.
retiredcoder 7y ago
Erdös also did a lot of Amphetamines and claimed Math stopped when he took a break from it.
- philwelch 7y ago
  It probably did. Just from a perspective of idle layman speculation, Erdős probably had a self-medicated, undiagnosed form of adult ADD. He routinely used amphetamines and methylphenidate (i.e. the two most widely-prescribed ADD drugs) and when he stopped using them for a month, he was incapable of focusing long enough to do his work. From the research I've done, he managed to maintain prescriptions to his stimulants based on a "depression" diagnosis, which is also consistent (adult ADD often manifests as depression).
philwelch 7y ago
Yeah but you can only have one Erdős: > Possessions meant little to Erdős; most of his belongings would fit in a suitcase, as dictated by his itinerant lifestyle. Awards and other earnings were generally donated to people in need and various worthy causes. He spent most of his life traveling between scientific conferences, universities and the homes of colleagues all over the world. He earned enough in stipends from universities as a guest lecturer, and from various mathematical awards, to fund his travels and basic needs; money left over he used to fund cash prizes for proofs of "Erdős problems" (see below). He would typically show up at a colleague's doorstep and announce "my brain is open", staying long enough to collaborate on a few papers before moving on a few days later. In many cases, he would ask the current collaborator about whom to visit next. You can't have Erdős if you don't also have the dozens of mathemeticians with homes, families, and patient and forgiving spouses who tolerated and supported him so that he could focus on his work. Mathematicians as a profession can't really exist as an order of traveling monks, nor do most of them even want to.

pakitan 7y ago

> Erdős never married and had no children

gerbilly 7y ago
OP is probably thinking of Euler, who according to a contemporary often worked: "with a child on his knees, a cat on his back "
jgtrosh 7y ago
Not taking responsibility is one way of not letting responsibilities get in the way
rat87 7y ago
He couchsurfed his friends homes, collaborating on math papers with them.

retiredcoder 7y ago

Erdös also did a lot of Amphetamines and claimed Math stopped when he took a break from it.

philwelch 7y ago
It probably did. Just from a perspective of idle layman speculation, Erdős probably had a self-medicated, undiagnosed form of adult ADD. He routinely used amphetamines and methylphenidate (i.e. the two most widely-prescribed ADD drugs) and when he stopped using them for a month, he was incapable of focusing long enough to do his work. From the research I've done, he managed to maintain prescriptions to his stimulants based on a "depression" diagnosis, which is also consistent (adult ADD often manifests as depression).

philwelch 7y ago

Yeah but you can only have one Erdős: > Possessions meant little to Erdős; most of his belongings would fit in a suitcase, as dictated by his itinerant lifestyle. Awards and other earnings were generally donated to people in need and various worthy causes. He spent most of his life traveling between scientific conferences, universities and the homes of colleagues all over the world. He earned enough in stipends from universities as a guest lecturer, and from various mathematical awards, to fund his travels and basic needs; money left over he used to fund cash prizes for proofs of "Erdős problems" (see below). He would typically show up at a colleague's doorstep and announce "my brain is open", staying long enough to collaborate on a few papers before moving on a few days later. In many cases, he would ask the current collaborator about whom to visit next. You can't have Erdős if you don't also have the dozens of mathemeticians with homes, families, and patient and forgiving spouses who tolerated and supported him so that he could focus on his work. Mathematicians as a profession can't really exist as an order of traveling monks, nor do most of them even want to.