3 ms·

He might be a crank but certainly not the usual sort, he solved a longstanding open problem in mathematics: https://www.quantamagazine.org/decades-old-graph-pro

He might be a crank but certainly not the usual sort, he solved a longstanding open problem in mathematics: https://www.quantamagazine.org/decades-old-graph-problem-yields-to-amateur-mathematician-20180417/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/decades-old-graph-problem-yie...

jacquesm 5y ago
I see him as a fraudster rather than a crank and there is no reason why people that are good at mathematics would not be able to commit fraud. In fact, they're probably better at it.
- masklinn 5y ago
  Being good at mathematics also does not preclude crankery. Quite the opposite really, if you can see the theoretical underpinnings of reality it’s a short step to believing you know everything. Gödel was famously on the far side, suffering from an obsessive fear of being poisoned and starving to death when his wife was hospitalised because he refused to eat anyone else's food.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    That's when you assume that the person involved is ethical, but ethics and intelligence are not necessarily aligned.
  - Trasmatta 5y ago
    Gödel was very mentally unwell (what seems like severe hypochondria and probably other things as well) but he definitely was not a crank.
    - jjgreen 5y ago
      This, crankery (in mathematics) has a rather specific meaning, there's even a book: https://bookstore.ams.org/spec-4 https://bookstore.ams.org/spec-4
      - masklinn 5y ago
        Crankery is crankery. The book you link to talks about mathemathical crankery, but a mathematician would most likely be a non-mathematics crank, as crankery usually requires a lack of / limited understanding of the field and subject. Although there are some strange cases e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Branges_de_Bourcia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Branges_de_Bourcia
        Trasmatta 5y ago
        The point still stands that Gödel was not a crank. He was mentally ill, but his scientific and mathematical work was about as far removed from crankery as possible.

jacquesm 5y ago

I see him as a fraudster rather than a crank and there is no reason why people that are good at mathematics would not be able to commit fraud. In fact, they're probably better at it.

masklinn 5y ago
Being good at mathematics also does not preclude crankery. Quite the opposite really, if you can see the theoretical underpinnings of reality it’s a short step to believing you know everything. Gödel was famously on the far side, suffering from an obsessive fear of being poisoned and starving to death when his wife was hospitalised because he refused to eat anyone else's food.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  That's when you assume that the person involved is ethical, but ethics and intelligence are not necessarily aligned.
- Trasmatta 5y ago
  Gödel was very mentally unwell (what seems like severe hypochondria and probably other things as well) but he definitely was not a crank.
  - jjgreen 5y ago
    This, crankery (in mathematics) has a rather specific meaning, there's even a book: https://bookstore.ams.org/spec-4 https://bookstore.ams.org/spec-4
    - masklinn 5y ago
      Crankery is crankery. The book you link to talks about mathemathical crankery, but a mathematician would most likely be a non-mathematics crank, as crankery usually requires a lack of / limited understanding of the field and subject. Although there are some strange cases e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Branges_de_Bourcia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Branges_de_Bourcia
      - Trasmatta 5y ago
        The point still stands that Gödel was not a crank. He was mentally ill, but his scientific and mathematical work was about as far removed from crankery as possible.