It doesn't necessarily mean that his thinking didn't extend beyond physics or that his social contact didn't extend beyond his office. In this case it's more ab

It doesn't necessarily mean that his thinking didn't extend beyond physics or that his social contact didn't extend beyond his office. In this case it's more about an indifference towards social conventions, e.g., his famous messy hair which is now the definitive image of the mad scientist. As for Witten, I just looked up a video of him on YouTube. One of the top comments, unfortunately very inflammatory: "If Witten wasn't a mathematician he would have been a serial killer." I supposed this is referring to his unorthodox mannerisms of speech. (The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6b3DjOnv3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6b3DjOnv3I)