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Russian Mathematician recluse turns down $1 million prize

post #1 of 38
7/2/10 at 12:03am
Thread Starter 
This guy is my new hero.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews
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post #2 of 38
7/2/10 at 12:10am
Who needs money when you have that mind.
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post #3 of 38
7/2/10 at 12:14am
These illenium problems are a pretty neat thing. I don't understand them, but neat anyways.
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post #4 of 38
7/2/10 at 12:20am
The guy deserves the uttermost respect.
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post #5 of 38
7/2/10 at 12:20am
The guy's undoubtedly brilliant, but he could stand to learn a thing or two from American rappers;-- your first priority should always be to buy a new house for your moms.
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post #6 of 38
7/2/10 at 1:30am
that dude is awesome!
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post #7 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:03am
Class act.
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post #8 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LTJazz View Post
Class act.

No, he is just a creep.
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post #9 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:19am
Dude could've accepted it and donated it to charity.
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post #10 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:24am
In Russia, equation solves you!
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post #11 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tagutcow View Post
The guy's undoubtedly brilliant, but he could stand to learn a thing or two from American rappers;-- your first priority should always be to buy a new house for your moms.



Don't they usually have fathers, but one mom?
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post #12 of 38
7/2/10 at 3:24am
My wife (a number theorist) and I have been talking about this for a while. Apparently, he also refused to flesh out his proof. Apparently, he sketched out his solution in the mathematical archive (where proofs are submitted for possibly the most rigorous peer review there is,) and Perelman was absolutely unwilling to do so, though it seemed that he could, and relatively easily.

Turning down money is nothing new to mathematicians. You have to realize that these are arguably the smartest people in the world choosing to do the most rigorous intellectual work for some of the lowest academic salaries (they typically have to take large course loads compared to other academics in order to raise their salaries.) But turning down recognition from their peers is pretty unusual.

Apparently even mathematicians consider Perelman wierd, which is a pretty big achievement in and of itself.
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post #13 of 38
7/2/10 at 2:20pm
I remeber seeing this fellow on a russian blog, someone had spotted him on the subway and described him as looking like "homeless trash", theirs word not mine. He seems to be is some sort of distress; is there a division of Child Protective Services that can deal with foreiign mathematicians?
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post #14 of 38
7/2/10 at 4:47pm
One need only look at Ted Kaczynski.
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post #15 of 38
7/2/10 at 9:52pm
The book "A Perfect Rigor" deals with Perelman. Very interesting shit. I won't go into too much detail, will just refer you to my review.

Quote:
Originally Posted by edinatlanta View Post
19 -- Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen. Really good. Glad to get back on the finishing a book wagon. Story of the man was much more interesting than the puzzle itself, also very interesting. Will likely add to this when it isn't 1AM/I just returned home from a trip.
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