
John and Alicia Nash, 1928,1933-2015 - gluejar
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/john-and-alicia-nash-19281933-2015/
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newman8r
We can all get rich but to make such a profound and lasting contribution is
something more people should open themselves to the idea of doing. Just like
anything else it takes hard work and a deep interest - but I believe any
person is capable of making these contributions if they do the work, but
there's this deep apprehension and notion you need to be a biological genius
to do so.

Imagine what the great innovators of the early 20th century could have done if
they had access to 3d printers for less than a month's worth of rent, machine
learning libraries, personal computers, being able to get information on the
majority of studies ever published within a span of minutes or hours, being
able to collaborate on open source projects.... we have no excuse not to be
doing more of this.

In the end your legacy is the knowledge you leave behind not your family name.
In time the name becomes academic knowledge or commonly held trivia, or
perhaps immortalized in popular media. The contribution of knowledge is a
different thing entirely - for John Nash it lives on every time we use an
electronic device, which is essentially 24 hours a day for the developed
world.

~~~
pron
> We can all get rich but to make such a profound and lasting contribution is
> something more people should open themselves to the idea of doing.

I think both of these things -- getting rich and making a profound
contribution to humanity -- are very hard, require _a lot_ of luck, and will
be achieved by precious few no matter how hard you try. That doesn't mean
people shouldn't try, of course.

~~~
newman8r
Since these are all subjective terms I think I can say I agree at least to an
extent - earning your own fortune is admirable in my opinion but changing the
world through innovation is awe inspiring, god like.

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Litost
I've only had a cursory introduction to Nash's work through brief flirtations
with game theory, but this is the best explanation i've found so far on Nash's
Equilibrium which i still remember vividly for highlighting why a "Socially
Optimal Solution" is pretty rare in real life [1] (apologies in advance to the
ted-talk averse).

Has anyone got any other good pointers to examples of his work?

P.S. Can anyone recommend A Beautiful Mind, i'm kinda put off by the
description in here which makes it sound very hollywoodised [2]?

[1] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8)

[2] - [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/science/explaining-a-
corne...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/science/explaining-a-cornerstone-
of-game-theory-john-nashs-equilibrium.html)

~~~
baldfat
It is VERY Hollywood. Alicia his ewife was a hot white college student of his.
In real life Alicia was from El Salvador and had a degree from MIT whom he
married in 1957 and divorced in 1963 after began being treated for his mental
disorder in 1959. in 1970 John became the border of Alica and they eventually
remarried in 2001. All of this was missing plus his first son whom he
abandoned when he found out his girl friend told him that she was carrying his
child whom he believed was below him in society.

I say skip the movie though the graphics of his thought process was really
neat.

------
tempodox
sic transit gloria mundi

I find it thought-provoking how often The End comes disguised as a banal
accident that could have been avoided with little difficulty (Disclaimer: This
is not to instigate a debate about seat belts, it's merely an observation). I
always seem to expect that people we feel are somewhat “special” also would
have a “special” way of making their exit. And I was reminded again that this
expectation has no basis in fact. That the two could leave together and
weren't separated in the end was maybe all any-one would wish for in their
place.

requiescant in pace

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atgreen
A friend who knew him was interviewed for this story:
[http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-
edi...](http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-
edition-1.3086569/remembering-a-beautiful-mind-nobel-prize-winner-john-nash-
dies-1.3086571)

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Rainymood
Let us use this comment space to commemorate the Nashes, instead of turning it
into a discussion on seatbelts like the previous thread.

RIP

