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Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize

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.'"

19 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.

    3. Re:This is hilarious by algormortis · · Score: 5, Informative

      Your definition of sanity does not apply simply because the man is intelligent. For example, think of John Nash, the Nobel Prize Winner with schizophrenia. That guy hallucinated to the point where he thought he had a roommate throughout college, even though he lived in a single by himself.

  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."
    2. Re:I have an idea... by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Still better to take it. A million would easily pay for building a moat around his house as well as for some sharks and lasers.

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    3. Re:I have an idea... by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Am I the only one who thinks this guy is getting off on all the attention he is getting by pretending to be a recluse who doesn't want any attention or money."

      No there are a couple of other posters who also don't get it.

      Spinoza..."is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism.....Spinoza is considered to be one of Western philosophy's most important philosophers...Spinoza lived quietly as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honors throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions"

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  3. This guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  4. I'm amazed he has a mobile by LittleBigScript · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe try his facebook.

    They don't make recluses like they used to.

  5. 'Your disturbing me. I'm picking mushrooms' by Kitkoan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I know how he figured it out at least. He went out, picked magic mushrooms, ate them and let the universe tell him the answer. No wonder he doesn't want the prize, it should be given to the great mushroom spirits.

    --
    Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

  8. Not for this reason by Beetle+B. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He's rejecting it on principled grounds. Regardless of what you think about those principles, he simply can't do this just for short term charity.

    When he rejected the Field's medal, he simply said to the effect of, "If I take the money, I'd be obligated to correct the wrongs I see, otherwise I'd be a hypocrite. I don't want to be the one making that crusade, so I have to reject the money." (Remember the scene in Thank You For Not Smoking?) It's a simple, logical response. He may be a recluse and all, but there's nothing strange about his refusal to take the money.

    --
    Beetle B.
  9. Re:Mother and Sister? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From what I can recall, his mother and sister are similarly minded as he himself is.

    Thus, they too would refuse the money.

    Is integrity such a rare thing these days, that everybody freaks the fuck out when they see it, call the person exhibiting it "Strange", and "Weird"?

    Because that is what seems to be happening from my vantage point.

    Seriously, just stop harassing the man. The doesn't want any prizes, additional prestige, or some fucking trophy for his wall. He solved the conjecture, his name will be in math books for the rest of eternity, and that is prize enough for him. Just leave him the fuck alone already.

  10. 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.

    1. Re:An artform. by fyoder · · Score: 5, Funny

      as if you could place a price on Shakespeare or a price-tag on Emily Dickinsons' poems.

      Shakespeare : $26.40

      Emily Dickinson : $14.95

      --
      Loose lips lose spit.
    2. Re:An artform. by jjohnson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Shakespeare certainly didn't write for art. If he were alive today he'd be Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay. Throughout his life he made a reasonable living producing plays that had large audiences from all levels of society. He wasn't writing for posterity, he was writing to sell tickets, and his plays reflect that: Kings and Queens, forbidden love and betrayal, lots of opportunities for swordfights to be staged, and comedy that still holds up today if performed well.

      The only reason he seems like a God among writers is that, because he was popular, his plays survived. He wrote very little that was original in concept; he was constantly borrowing from other, earlier playwrights and from popular stories of the day. The (now) archaic English gives it a patina of high art, but that's our faulty perspective, not his intent.

      If that depresses you, it's only because in 500 years, there will be revival companies performing Top Gun and Die Hard rather than Driving Miss Daisy.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
  11. 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?