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Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize

Posted by timothy on from the leave-the-guy-alone-already dept.

krou writes "The Warm Home charity in St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman's home-town, has urged the math genius and recluse to accept the $1m Millennium Prize for solving the Poincaré conjecture, and donate it to charities. Perelman has refused to accept the award, telling one reporter through the closed door of his flat, 'I have all I want,' and another who managed to call him on his mobile, 'You are disturbing me. I am picking mushrooms.'"

10 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. This is hilarious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Patron saint of basement dwellers everywhere.

    1. Re:This is hilarious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually I read a interview with him at some point (I think in the New Yorker), and he really doesn't want the limelight.

      Since his discovery, he's had offers from major universities to work, and he's turned them all down.

      He really didn't do this for the glory. He is one of those few, rare individuals who achieved great things solely because they were there. Humble. Strange. Special in some way.

      I honestly admire this man. He has solved one of the most important problems of our time (and others' time) and his only wish is that other people take it further, purely for the sake of knowledge and understanding. Not for awards. Not for riches. Not for fame. Simply for knowledge.

      We may not understand him. Quite likely he doesn't understand us.

      He may not accept our riches, but he has given us something far far greater than mere money. Leave him be.

    2. Re:This is hilarious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, just remember that genius and madness are only separated by a thin line.

      Some people aren't as fixated on money or socializing and gossip as journalists and Trolls are. Not wanting to be part of the In-Crowd does NOT make a person insane, or on the verge of insanity. Some people, like me, program for a hobby. Some people even write poetry without the intent of having it published. It makes us weird compared to the Trolls and socialites out there. But it doesn't make us crazy.

  2. I have an idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe leave the guy alone like he wants?

    1. Re:I have an idea... by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Best idea I've heard yet. The right to be left alone is one of the most important ones we have.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  3. This guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is a total badass, he sets the standard for life.

  4. Just leave him alone.. by gyepi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He probably wants nothing more than being left alone. It's ironic that he doesn't seem to grasp that his eccentric behavior makes that even more difficult to achieve.

    --
    Attitudes make the difference between Space and Time: we want to MAX our temporal, and MIN our spatial extension.
  5. Ah... an Oscar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This latest snub follows his refusal in 2006 to collect the maths equivalent of an Oscar, the Fields Medal.

    Its sad that the Fields medal is being compared to the Oscars - don't get me wrong, the Oscars are high honors in their fields - but comparing the lifetime of dedication scientists and mathematicians put into their work to the winner of 'Best miniskirt on hot actress in a running scene' doesn't seem right.

  6. An artform. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think Perelman is not so much a weirdo, but an aesthetic artist of sorts--he's been hurt by the fact that humans have tried to monetize something he considers to be beautiful...as if you could place a price on Shakespeare or a price-tag on Emily Dickinsons' poems.

  7. you are a scared little one, aren't you? by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does Perelman not taking the money scare you?

    Does he offend you?

    Does he entice a violent reaction in you?

    Do you hate it, when someone sticks out of the crowd not out of a desire to be more 'cool looking' but simply because he does not need the crowd?

    Take the money and give it to charity, you self-important Shit

    - why don't you go and find him and beat him into submission to your own standards, that will hopefully satisfy your primordial craving to make sure nobody is different and whoever is different they are destroyed, so that the coherency of the group is in balance yet again?

    --
    You can't handle the truth.