Joel David Hamkins: belief

Transcript context

…I think it’s when you work solo on mathematics, from my outsider perspective, it seems terrifyingly lonely. And because you’re, especially if you do stick to a single problem, especially if that problem has broken many brilliant mathematicians in the past, that you’re really putting all your chips in. And just the torment… …The rollercoaster of day to day. Because I imagine you have these moments of hopeful break, mini breakthroughs, and then you have to deal with the occasional realization that, no, it was not a breakthrough, and that disappointment. And then you have to go, like, a weekly, maybe daily disappointment where you hit a wall, and you have no other person to brainstorm with. You have no other avenue to pursue. And it’s, I don’t know, the mental fortitude it takes to go through that. But everybody’s different. Some people are recluse and just really find solace in that lone grind. I have to ask about Grisha Grigori Perelman. What do you think of him famously declining the Fields Medal and the Millennial Prize? So he stated, “I’m not interested in money or fame. The prize is completely irrelevant to me. If the proof is correct, then no other recognition is needed.” What do you think of him turning down the prize? I guess what I think is that mathematics is full of a lot of different kinds of people. And my attitude is that, hey, it doesn’t matter. Maybe they have a good math idea, and so I want to talk to them and interact with them. And so I think the Perelman case is maybe an instance where, you know, he’s such a brilliant mind and he solved this extremely famous and difficult problem, and that is a huge achievement. But he also had these views about, you know, prizes and somehow, I don’t really fully understand why he would turn it down. I do think I have a similar thing, just observing Olympic athletes that are, in many cases, don’t get paid very much, and they nevertheless dedicate their entire lives for the pursuit… … Of the gold medal. I think his case is a reminder that some of the greatest mathematicians, some of the greatest scientists and human beings do the thing they do, take on these problems for the love of it, not for the prizes or the money or any of that. Now, as you’re saying, if the money comes, you could use it for stuff. If the prizes come, and the fame, and so on, that might be useful. But the reason fundamentally the greats do it is because of the art itself.…

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