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I remember a brief exchange of emails I had with Dyson. Nothing of import, talking about some old math that he had once done. He seemed very kind.

• AlotOfReading 4y ago
  I was lucky enough to have a conversation with him after a lecture once. He was very nice to me, but also a contrarian. Even still, I've met few people whose minds so clearly demonstrated their enormous breadth of thought, let alone in a short conversation late at night.
  • mhh__ 4y ago
    In a limited way I had a similar experience emailing Chomsky about some minor quote attribution and similarly trivial things, there are many things we disagree on (although much we do, etc.) but his intelligence and breath was clear.
    • Emma_Goldman 4y ago
      > His intelligence and breath was clear. That bad huh? Hehe. I emailed Chomsky some horribly pompous 'intellectual' questions when I was eighteen. I cringed when I read them years later. But Chomsky answered within a day, giving gentle, thoughtful answers to each of my questions. It was a far kinder response than my email merited. I used to read and watch everything by Chomsky, and one thing that does cut through is his basic human decency.
      • mhh__ 4y ago
        You're lucky I missed a letter and not a word, it's a real issue with my writing.