4 ms·

The Grothendieck I Knew: Telling, Not Hiding, Not Judging [pdf]

64 points by chewxy 7y ago

pierre_d528 7y ago
> ... **Not Judging** ... > ... > Despite it all, I hope to have achieved a truthful text that illustrates the > **unclassifiable** person Grothendieck was. > ... > The quite unusual style of writing—with sentences, subsentences, and the > excessive use of cross references—intrigued me. One of my friends, a > professional psychoan-alyst, declared that **the author was paranoiac**. Ignore this guy and just read Récolte & Semailles[1] [1]: https://www.quarante-deux.org/archives/klein/prefaces/Romans_1965-1969/Recoltes_et_semailles.pdf https://www.quarante-deux.org/archives/klein/prefaces/Romans...
- nabla9 7y ago
  Neither of those sentences is judgemental.
- mikorym 7y ago
  I think the point of the post is 1) it's new and 2) it's a recollection by an older mathematician. These are always valuable and would be lost if not told, despite any other sources or stories already available.
- ajudson 7y ago
  Do you know if there is any full English translation of this?
  - pierre_d528 7y ago
    Unfortunately, no... But the french used by Grothendieck is surprisingly simple : it should not be too much of a challenge with Google translate, a couple of months and some courage.
  - alderz 7y ago
    I don't know about a full translation, but some is translated and available here: https://www.fermentmagazine.org/rands/recoltes1.html https://www.fermentmagazine.org/rands/recoltes1.html And more texts are available here: https://webusers.imj-prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle/biographic.php https://webusers.imj-prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircl...
susam 7y ago
I am reminded of a fascinating paragraph about Grothendieck from the book The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy. Quoting it from Chapter 12: The Missing Piece of the Jigsaw here: But for Grothendieck this was not abstraction for abstraction's sake. In his view this was a revolution that was necessitated by the questions that mathematics was trying to answer. He wrote volume after volume describing this new language. Grothendieck's vision was messianic, and he began to attract a following of faithful young disciples. His output was huge, covering some ten thousand pages. When a visitor complained at the poor state of the library at the Institut, he replied, 'We don't read books here, we write them'.
jesuslop 7y ago
If you happen to read Spanish, professional philolospher Fernando Zalamea has finally finished his book on Grothendiek planed as a guidebook for someone overwhelmed by the huge extension of G's production. "A. Grothendieck, una guía a la obra matemática y filosófica" (A. G., A guide to the mathematical and philosophical works). Well researched if you ask me. Freely available. Zalamea is a philosopher that category theorists would like. https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Alexander+Grothendieck https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Alexander+Grothendieck, at the end
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
edflsafoiewq 7y ago
Cartier's personal recollections of Grothendieck is also fascinating. A country of which nothing is known but the name: http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf
andrewem 7y ago
Perhaps someone here can expand the Wikipedia article on the author. It's quite short: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Ribenboim https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Ribenboim

64 points by chewxy 7y ago

> ... **Not Judging** ... > ... > Despite it all, I hope to have achieved a truthful text that illustrates the > **unclassifiable** person Grothendieck was. > ... > The quite unusual style of writing—with sentences, subsentences, and the > excessive use of cross references—intrigued me. One of my friends, a > professional psychoan-alyst, declared that **the author was paranoiac**. Ignore this guy and just read Récolte & Semailles[1] [1]: https://www.quarante-deux.org/archives/klein/prefaces/Romans_1965-1969/Recoltes_et_semailles.pdf https://www.quarante-deux.org/archives/klein/prefaces/Romans...

nabla9 7y ago
Neither of those sentences is judgemental.
mikorym 7y ago
I think the point of the post is 1) it's new and 2) it's a recollection by an older mathematician. These are always valuable and would be lost if not told, despite any other sources or stories already available.
ajudson 7y ago
Do you know if there is any full English translation of this?
- pierre_d528 7y ago
  Unfortunately, no... But the french used by Grothendieck is surprisingly simple : it should not be too much of a challenge with Google translate, a couple of months and some courage.
- alderz 7y ago
  I don't know about a full translation, but some is translated and available here: https://www.fermentmagazine.org/rands/recoltes1.html https://www.fermentmagazine.org/rands/recoltes1.html And more texts are available here: https://webusers.imj-prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle/biographic.php https://webusers.imj-prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircl...

susam 7y ago

I am reminded of a fascinating paragraph about Grothendieck from the book The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy. Quoting it from Chapter 12: The Missing Piece of the Jigsaw here: But for Grothendieck this was not abstraction for abstraction's sake. In his view this was a revolution that was necessitated by the questions that mathematics was trying to answer. He wrote volume after volume describing this new language. Grothendieck's vision was messianic, and he began to attract a following of faithful young disciples. His output was huge, covering some ten thousand pages. When a visitor complained at the poor state of the library at the Institut, he replied, 'We don't read books here, we write them'.

jesuslop 7y ago

If you happen to read Spanish, professional philolospher Fernando Zalamea has finally finished his book on Grothendiek planed as a guidebook for someone overwhelmed by the huge extension of G's production. "A. Grothendieck, una guía a la obra matemática y filosófica" (A. G., A guide to the mathematical and philosophical works). Well researched if you ask me. Freely available. Zalamea is a philosopher that category theorists would like. https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Alexander+Grothendieck https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Alexander+Grothendieck, at the end

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

edflsafoiewq 7y ago

Cartier's personal recollections of Grothendieck is also fascinating. A country of which nothing is known but the name: http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf

andrewem 7y ago

Perhaps someone here can expand the Wikipedia article on the author. It's quite short: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Ribenboim https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Ribenboim