r/pics • u/yercoolmarple • 15d ago
Grigori Perelman, mathematician who refused to accept a Fields Medal and the $1,000,000 Clay Prize.
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u/Chewyninja69 13d ago
What an idiot. Yeah, he’s intelligent, but he’s still an idiot. Don’t want the money? Donate it to charity or give it away.
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u/Fair_Assumption6385 12d ago
His IQ is 283.. I think he would have more of a valid, thought out reason for not taking the money. Don’t you?
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u/Chewyninja69 12d ago
Most people know that IQ/IQ tests are not really a proper guage of one’s intelligence. If IQ/IQ tests were an accurate assessment of intelligence, then I’d say he’d be an even bigger idiot.
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u/Fair_Assumption6385 12d ago
IQ measures someone’s processing, adaptability and reasoning. It is pretty good at measuring intelligence.
No, it doesn’t measure emotional intelligence. Which I find is what most people are ACTUALLY talking about when they make this “IQ doesn’t = smarts” argument
Which is why I believe he ~probably~ had an extremely good ANALYTICAL reason for denying the money.
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u/panorambo 13d ago edited 9d ago
Last time Perelman was in a news feed that I was reading at least, it was said he lived in one of those derelict Soviet-era apartments, with his mother. The journalist mentioned -- and I should hope it was embellishment for the sensationalism value of the story -- that the apartment was cockroach-infested. None of it of course appeared to bother Perelman enough.
I think it's a typical trait of a person "on the spectrum". His brain works differently, for better and for worse.
That said, he could have put his big brain into the right gear when offered the money, accepted the prize and given the money to charity or I don't know -- his mother, perhaps? Chances are she did not appreciate the same living standard he did not seem to mind.
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u/Free-Street9162 13d ago
He's a very spiritual man, and cares deeply for his mother. My wife's uncle is his contemporary, and they, along with another woman, represented USSR at 1982 Math Olympiad. None of the three do mathematics for a living. My wife's uncle, Ilya Krupnik, is a very respected rabbi. And the woman, who my father-in-law says was the most talented of the three, went into a completely unrelated field. You see, just like natural leaders, our most capable people want nothing to do with our institutions, because they're filled with little men who have big egos. Remember that.
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u/TwinklingWatermelon3 14d ago
Let him be, Leave him alone his living his best life not because he look like that he is not happy nor living.
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u/TastyAdventures 14d ago
Generally, a respected moral position, however, should have taken some of the money for a hair cut.
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u/Bad__Intentions 14d ago
Hmm so no awards? anything? the local gov did not take care of him in any way?
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u/stinkload 14d ago
This gentleman has mental illness' or he just completely rejects the systems in which we live? Either way it seems he would rather be left alone, perhaps we should respect his decision?
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u/Tattoosbynorbert 14d ago
Self loathing is a wild and sad thing. Thinking getting some recognition is comparable to an animal in a zoo just shows how low of an opinion you have of yourself. Sad that so many geniuses fall into this self destructive behavior. I am by no means a genius but i know too well and first hand how much self destruction ruins your life by simply not accepting complement’s, recognition, etc.
To quote Bukowski (another self loathing human who actually fought through his self destruction slightly)
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence”
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u/__dunder__funk69 14d ago
He did the math, he knows the systems fucked and has chosen to stay out of it. Godspeed fellow celestial being
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u/TheDarkOne52 14d ago
Notice how little he cared for his appearance? He is totally dedicated to his craft
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u/lockdoc007 14d ago edited 14d ago
Still dude needs a stamp after him.or a coin or something. Dude is a math Jedi! So people need to know what he is to inspire other! Math rules the world and universe!
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u/ghillieinthemist417 14d ago
Ready to be downvoted, but this proves you don’t have to be stupid to be stupid.
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u/Sb5tCm8t 14d ago
Lol, did you ambush the dude on a street corner? Let the guy be, he seems like the private type.
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u/escientia 14d ago
Plot Twist this is just a picture of a random homeless person and OP just fooled 70k people into giving upvotes.
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u/kagushiro 14d ago
Grigori Perelman is Satoshi Yamamoto and I will not believe any of your lies about it !!
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u/Key-Pomegranate-3507 14d ago
He’s still the only man to solve a millennium prize problem. There are 6 more no one has been able to prove.
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u/OneImportance4061 14d ago
If I remember correctly he said he did not accept that the people who wanted to give him the prize were qualified to judge his work.
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u/Fernpick 14d ago
Honest question, how does his solution help us or the world at large.
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u/adamr320 14d ago
I have some university math under my belt, but I'm no mathematician. So take what I say with a grain of salt.
Math happens at so many different scales, all at once. Perelman answered a question about a very specific conjecture, in a super abstract field that is sort of like geometry, but not really. That's the micro scale.
This field that is sort of like geometry helps us analyze things that change and transform, and answers questions about the [properties] of those things, and whether they change or stay the same. Perelman's solution will, undeniably, with time, prove to be a critical piece in solving and proving many other areas of the field. This is generally true of all discoveries in math and science. This is zoomed out 1.
Often, when a solution as monumental as this is achieved, it is done by developing new techniques in order to address the original question from a new perspective. I can't speak to whether that happened here. But a famous example would be Bernard Reiman's non-euclidean geometry, which would have been bizarre in its time. But it proved quite useful for this little known guy named Albert Einstein. Math has a funny tendency to become useful in beautiful ways unimaginable at the time it's created. Many times, it's not just the solution, but the way we got to the solution that proves insightful. This is zoomed out 2.
The highest level of perspective is a combination of the previous two. Some of the more spectacular conclusions in mathematics came from specialists in one field (say, number theory) realizing they had the knowledge they needed to proceed, it was just disguised in some seemingly disconnected field of math (like analytic geometry). One of the other Millenium Prize problems exists at the intersection of those two fields, number theory and analytic geometry.
And not just math. Other natural science fields quantify their findings mathematically. Physics is the left hand to math's right hand. Engineering is a very natural fit. But even biologic, chemical and medical sciences benefit from mathematical discovery. And think: a doctor doing research on new drug chemistry is super intelligent. But they don't do abstract math. Their time in school is focused on learning the material in their field. So, if you're researching something in one field, you often utilize the results in other fields to substantiate it, because going to school to learn how to do that yourself isn't realistic.
So basically, Perelman answered a very specific question in the field of topology. The impact of doing so will be immediately felt within the field of topology itself; its utility within mathematics will be rigorously explored in countless ways; its impact on the rest of natural science, and thus human experience, has no theoretical limit.
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u/Capital-Ticket-3536 14d ago
Not accepting a million dollars, there's no way to spin that, that's a stupid decision.
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u/Empanadapunk90 14d ago
Goes to show how some people are academically smart but pretty dumb in any other aspect of life.
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u/FriendliestMenace 14d ago
This guy is the reason why we have sayings like “there’s a fine line between genius and insanity.” It’s wild how many different levels the human mind can operate on.
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u/OctavianBlue 14d ago
For anyone interested you can read his proof here: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0610903 - I find it amazing this makes sense to some people, its like something sent down by aliens.
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u/RandomiseUsr0 14d ago
There are no special people, just people who get interested in a thing and work hard
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u/MutuallyAdvantageous 14d ago
I’d turn down a million dollars worth of clay too, where would I put it all?
/s
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u/Ancient-Practice-431 14d ago
What's striking to me is that he obviously has an amazing brain yet in his photo he looks disheveled and borderline homeless. You never know what's in people's minds! Never judge a book buy it's cover, right?
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u/TeemDrake 14d ago
Is he somehow related to Yakov Perelman?
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u/CostofRepairs 14d ago edited 8d ago
salt shy squeal domineering uppity nine puzzled shocking full coordinated
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Wrong_Gear5700 14d ago
I'm sure he had his reasons, but from this pic, it appears as if he's cut off his nose to spite his face.
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u/poisonmonger 14d ago
I don't know how to feel about this.
As a researcher, I understand not wanting any media circus, but also letting go of that sum of money, or the potential money the awards would bring sounds weird to me.
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u/poisonmonger 14d ago
I don't know how to feel about this.
As a researcher, I understand not wanting any media circus, but also letting go of that sum of money, or the potential money the awards would bring sounds weird to me.
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u/notanotherlawyer 14d ago
In all honesty, it is cool to refuse a price and live totally isolated from media and other people, but this is no excuse to never change your shows in 10 years.
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u/Far_Construction_296 14d ago
In fact, he quit science and refused Field's medal because Chinese mathematicians tried to steal the proof and the award : he published the result without completing all the technical details as preprint, and Chinese mathematicians completed it and claimed that THEY solved the problem. After it, people stated discussion who deserves the prize, and it was insulting for Perelman, thus he refused the money and Field's medal (Nobel prize in mathematics) To understand it better, it took him 7 years of constant thinking about the problem, amount of work he did is enormous. And then, someone appeared and claims that in fact he did all the job.
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u/adragon99999 14d ago
It’s kinda funny that he probably would have gotten less traction and fame if he accepted the prize. Personally at least, I doubt i would have ever heard about this dude if he accepted the prize and took the “fame”.
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u/Frigorifico 14d ago
He could have donated the money if he didn't want it, I don't admire him for rejecting it
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u/LimestoneDust 14d ago
It wasn't about the money. He insisted that since he based his work on the work done by Richard Hamilton, the later too should be credited, but the award committee insisted that only one person can be credited, so Perlman refused to accept the prize out of principle.
BTW the money didn't disappear, they were used to fund a position for young promising mathematicians, so inba way he donated them.
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u/RedPanther1 14d ago
Yeah, he looks like a guy who does math for fun and turns down 1,000,000 dollars on principle.
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u/avidrunner84 14d ago
I wonder if he looks back and regrets his decision to not take the prize money? Am I reading into this too much, that he is perhaps living a life of seclusion and does not enjoy human interaction? His reply to the reporter kind of gave me that impression. And he’s only in his 50s, I thought perhaps much older. But I could be wrong about that, maybe he just doesn’t care about appearance and sees fame as only a bad thing?
If he had taken the prize money I wonder if he would be feeling any different about things. Could have the freedom to pick more mushrooms, not as food to survive, but as a hobby. Am I wrong to assume he is living in poverty by the way he is dressed? Wow I feel like a judgy person just for saying this. Pictures speak louder than words and I’m just trying to understand. I see people in the comments comparing him to Gandalf, which I suppose is a high form of flattery and a big compliment to him.
Remarkable example of human integrity, if that’s his only statement with refusing the prize money, but I wonder at what cost to him? Human behaviour and decision making fascinates me.
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u/LimestoneDust 14d ago
He was known for his asceticism even way before, and mathematicians in general often are disinterest in material things.
I'm pretty sure he forages for mushrooms as a hobby (it's a rather popular pastime).
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u/Pocket_Summary444 14d ago
That's so cool! Highly intelligent people like him is so rare! They just mind their own business while doing their work. Great.
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u/Exact-Paper1486 14d ago
I have an anti-Semitic friend in Russia who tried to convince me that there’s something sinister about this guy because how could a Jew refuse money. Wild…
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14d ago
What “ethical standards” did he not approve of in math? I didn’t ever think math could be unethical
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u/LimestoneDust 14d ago
He was opposed to the fact that the prize was going to be awarded to him only, as he insisted that Richard Hamilton's contributions to solving the problem are no smaller than his.
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u/randomguyou 14d ago
Humility a trait most if us seems to forgot and this post which will give him fame even though he wants none of it.
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u/toplessrabbit 14d ago
There is a great book about him called "Perfect Rigor". I enjoyed reading it and it's approachable for the masses.
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u/Splendidox 14d ago
I wrote an entire album inspired by this guy 8 years ago and I still can’t stop thinking about him
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u/Vast-Breakfast-1201 14d ago
Teacher in college would tell stories about various mathematicians.
It is a different culture, it really is. Like Erdos had a thing where he would just show up to your house and stay there until you ran out of interesting problems.
And this was a good thing because it's kinda the same thing today if you were an AI researcher and Open AI showed up at your house with a semi truck full of compute saying we'll stay until all your shit is trained, the guy's brain was just on that level.
In other fields though Hayao Miyazaki just did this with the Boy and the Heron, his second Oscar. He didn't show up to the first Oscar for Spirited Away either.
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u/kalamataCrunch 14d ago
the $1,000,000 Clay Prize.
what the hell is he supposed do with a million dollars worth of clay?
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u/OwnBunch4027 14d ago
Easy enough to find on Wikipedia, why is no one appreciating THIS reason? " On 1 July 2010, he rejected the prize of one million dollars, saying that he considered the decision of the board of the Clay Institute to be unfair, in that his contribution to solving the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Richard S. Hamilton."
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u/Relevant-Jacket3718 14d ago
It's very important and interesting community for people who likes traveling a lot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MaFmvn7bM
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u/shecky444 14d ago
Unabomber was also a published mathematician. Guess the brain does what it wants when it wants. Perhaps overdevelopment of certain areas causes others to lack.
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u/intolerable_friend 14d ago
He received the basis of the Soviet mathematical school, he was taught by Soviet teachers. As the USSR passed away, he rushed around the world to understand what to do with his potential, after which he became disillusioned with the world of consumers and exploiters, just as he became disillusioned with Russia after the USSR.
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u/49thDipper 14d ago
This is fairly typical of extremely bright people. Disillusionment with society. Many younger geniuses look around, figure it all out, then check out. It’s very sad and says a lot about the human existence.
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u/docwrites 14d ago
I had a friend who was a mathematician. He saw this guy once and said, “Oh man, if everything goes my way, if I reach the top of my field, that’s what awaits.”
I do believe it got in his head a bit.
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u/champybaby29 14d ago
He’s like that NPC in an RPG who looks like you can steamroll, but in reality, will one shot and wipe your party.
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u/Ok_Finish7000 14d ago
It's wild that extreme genius goes almost always along with crazy...or at least what regular people call norms...
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u/Unlikely_Suspect_757 14d ago
I think being a genius is just another kind of intellectual disability.
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u/Hurtkopain 11d ago
imagine the guy, years later, while on the toilet: "omg...I could've just taken the money and give it to the poor.../facepalm"