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"I haven't read Hardy, but you make him sound like a jerk." Hardy wrote of Srinivasa Ramanujan's untimely death that it was "not a great tragedy" that he died
by impendia 16y ago
"I haven't read Hardy, but you make him sound like a jerk."
Hardy wrote of Srinivasa Ramanujan's untimely death that it was "not a great tragedy" that he died at the age of thirty-two, as he was already too old to do serious mathematics.
"A Mathematician's Apology" is the bitter rant of a man who only valued one thing in his life and had largely lost the ability to do it in his old age. If I had read it and believed it ten years ago, I never would have gone for my Ph.D. in mathematics.
- Alex3917 16y ago>"A Mathematician's Apology" is the bitter rant of a man who only valued one thing in his life and had largely lost the ability to do it in his old age. It's been a while since I've read it, but isn't it mostly a theory on what makes something beautiful and worth doing? It's always struck me as being probably one of the most important essays of all time. I find it interesting that what Aaron and you took from the essay has essentially zero overlap with my take.
- mathgladiator 16y agoI think there is cause to read it and reflect on your life and say "hey, I should value more than one thing in life". I think devoting your life to one thing is the temptation of a life in academia, but it also is a path to bitterness.