
John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician - duncanawoods
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/23/john-horton-conway-the-most-charismatic-mathematician-in-the-world?id=
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hkmurakami
I took Math 217 (Honors Linear Algebra) [1] with John Conway back in
undergrad. Here are some anecdotes.

He announced that the midterm would be open notes. We study accordingly. We
get to the midterm, and he is in California for a conference. A grad student
is proctoring. We tell him that that the professor told us that it would be
open notes. The grad student chuckles, says no way, the students outraged, and
the exam proceeds closed notes. I guess he forgot to tell his grad student!

My friend comes to the exam late, didn't hear about the closed notes update,
takes the exam open notes (how did his neighbor not notice?), turns himself
into Conway later. The class average was something like 32 points out of 95.

After the midterm results, he was dismayed that he "had clearly done a poor
job teaching us," and proceeded to spend the next 3 lectures going over the
first 6 weeks of the course at a furious pace.

A classmate had met Conway back at a summer math camp during High School. John
Conway had a real bicycle around his neck. He proclaimed that in the future if
she sees a John Conway without a bicycle around his neck, that he is not the
real John Conway! (much to our dismay he never came to class with a bicycle
around his neck. I think he did, however, come to class with a metal cloths
hanger around his neck. I think he did a trick involving one or more of these
that day)

If students seemed a bit sleepy during lecture, he would routinely start to
suddenly lecture at the top of his lungs. I definitely remember jumping up in
my seat many times because of this. In one occasion, he opted to take off his
shoe and throw it as hard as he could at the window for similar effect.

He would lecture and write on the blackboard so fast that we would copy the
blackboard furiously for 90 minutes. If I started 2 blackboards behind (there
were 6 boards), I would usually not have caught up by the end of lecture.

[1]
[https://www.math.princeton.edu/undergraduate/course/mat217](https://www.math.princeton.edu/undergraduate/course/mat217)

~~~
princetontiger
I roomed with Conway's son at Princeton. His son was one smart guy

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ColinWright
One time when I was wheeling my unicycle down the street this manic with a
beard and sandals came after me and started asking some really odd questions.
Turned out it was Conway and he'd recognised me from the maths common room, so
figured I might be able to answer his questions. Turns out I did.

Subsequently I was one of very few people he'd bother playing backgammon with
because we'd both play stupidly fast, and switch between extreme style of
play, almost at random. I'd usually lose, but he stayed and played because he
found it interesting. He's very like a cat, in that he'll play with something
for a time, then completely lose interest and walk away without a word.

Fascinating, and humbling, to spend time with someone just so far out of my
league.

~~~
jeffwass
Do you remember what the odd questions were that he asked you while you were
unicycling?

~~~
ColinWright
Sadly, no, not in detail. I could fill in some answers, but I wouldn't be sure
I wasn't making them up. I think it was about torque versus the power
available at different parts of the cycle, but it might have been something
completely different.

Knowing Conway, it probably was.

The thing about riding a unicycle is that you don't think of staying on top of
it, you think about keeping it underneath you. Falling forwards? Pedal faster
to bring it back under you. Falling backwards? Stop pedalling so you catch up.
The side-to-side balance largely looks after itself when you're riding - it's
different when you're idling.

But I'm not sure that's what he asked about. It was 31 years ago.

~~~
doorhammer
> The thing about riding a unicycle is that you don't think of staying on top
> of it, you think about keeping it underneath you. Falling forwards? Pedal
> faster to bring it back under you. Falling backwards? Stop pedalling so you
> catch up.

Sounds vaguely like track standing on a fixed gear. It's more like balancing a
broom on your finger than trying to balance yourself on a rail.

I really love bikes of all varieties, but I've never messed with a unicycle.
They seem fun. My friend has one; I'll have to try his sometime.

Because you mentioned torque and such, if you never have, check out this book:
[http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Science-David-Gordon-
Wilson/...](http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Science-David-Gordon-
Wilson/dp/0262731541)

I picked it up expecting to read a chapter here and there and ended up cover
to covering it. Great read

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duncanawoods
Reposting after a prod from the mods because there is so much fascinating
stuff e.g. this quote from James Propp, professor of mathematics at the
University of Massachusetts Lowell:

“Conway is the rare sort of mathematician whose ability to connect his pet
mathematical interests makes one wonder if he isn’t, at some level, shaping
mathematical reality and not just exploring it. The example of this that I
know best is a connection he discovered between sphere packing and games.
These were two separate areas of study that Conway had arrived at by two
different paths. So there’s no reason for them to be linked. But somehow,
through the force of his personality, and the intensity of his passion, he
bent the mathematical universe to his will.”

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tdicola
Numberphile, an awesome youtube channel on its own, has done some great
interviews with John Conway that are definitely worth watching:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk),
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA),
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4)
He really comes across as a genuinely great guy.

~~~
oska
Thanks for mentioning those. Here's a single link to the YouTube playlist for
the 5 Conway videos on that channel:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIL8XA1npoN...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIL8XA1npoNAHseS-j1y-7V)

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amelius
> He’s invented many peculiar algorithms—for counting stairs while you climb
> without actually counting, and for how best to read through a stack of
> double-sided loose-leaf pages.

Any ideas about how this is done?

~~~
slazaro
I was curious as well and googled it ("counting stairs conway") and found
this:

[http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2011/06/a-nerds-way-to-
walk-u...](http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2011/06/a-nerds-way-to-walk-up-the-
stairs/)

> His invention is simple. Your steps should be in a cycle: short, long, long.
> Long in this case means a double step. Thus, you will cover five stairs in
> one short-long-long cycle. In addition, you should always start the first
> cycle on the same foot. Suppose you start on the left foot, then after two
> cycles you are back on the left foot, having covered ten stairs. While you
> are walking the stairs in this way, it is clear where you are in the cycle.
> By the end of the staircase, you will know the number of stairs modulo ten.
> Usually there are not a lot of stairs in a staircase, so you can easily
> estimate the total if you know the last digit of that number.

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th0br0
I had the chance to meet him in person during a summer school a few years ago.
He's simply awesome. Super fun guy, great to talk to and a great teacher (even
though sometimes quite a bit disorganised... I remember him leaving behind
some of his stuff when he had to catch the taxi that took him to the airport
at 6am or so ;) ).

~~~
rjsw
I met him over 30 years ago, a great teacher as you wrote.

~~~
ColinWright
Our paths may have crossed, then. I was at DPMMS from 1983 to 1987, spending
much time in the "common room". Is that where you met Conway?

~~~
rjsw
I met him while I was still at school, 1981 or 1982.

The maths department at my local University (Liverpool) organized meetings for
kids from the surrounding region who were reasonably good at the subject,
Conway came to one on a trip back to see his parents.

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robinhouston
This is an extract from the new biography of Conway, _Genius at Play_ , which
I'd thoroughly recommend if you found this interesting.

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tim_sw
The author of the article wrote a recent book on John Conway as well
[http://www.amazon.com/Genius-At-Play-Curious-
Horton/dp/16204...](http://www.amazon.com/Genius-At-Play-Curious-
Horton/dp/1620405938)

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bbcbasic
Wow I don't understand how you can just change your personality in an instant.
Maybe he has an easily 're-programmable' brain.

~~~
ctdonath
Just do it.

Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.

~~~
pugio
And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your
life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions
to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful.

You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment
frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built
into you over the years. Or, to put it differently, we all have an
equilibrium, a norm we tends towards in the absence of persistent and
sustained external stimuli. Your will is a small stimulus for change, and it
works over weeks and months in a series of small nudges.

You can change, in almost any way, but if you "just will yourself to do it",
you'll most likely find yourself failing again and again, convinced that if
you could only be (somehow) just a bit more stronger-willed, complete change
is right around the corner.

Perhaps you mean "Just do it – envision what you wish to become, work out the
set of habits necessary to that new person, and slowly rework your present
habits, one by one, (removing environmental triggers/cues to old habits, and
redirecting their behavioral outcomes), until you've discarded or transformed
the old set into the new.

Nothing is stopping you other than [a clear goal, a choice, and steadily
repeated applications of] your own will."

~~~
ctdonath
Like I said: just do it.

You're agreeing with me. Yes, it's hard. So what if it's hard? It's a matter
of second-by-second choices. Failed? ok, that's in the past. Might fail? ok,
that's in the future. You're in the present. Just do it.

~~~
bbcbasic
Ok I am open minded. Today I will just do it and post back some results :-).

And perhaps I should buy a certain brand of trainers?

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jindor
Not related to the article itself - I happened to open Javascript console on
the page. Try it yourself - you might find it interesting too : )

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pavel_lishin
I really want to play Phutball, now. I wish there was an android app.

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juliangregorian
The narrative of this piece is really great -- that the most charismatic
mathematician around just up and decided to reinvent himself as a charismatic
person. I gained a bunch of weight a couple years ago, and I genuinely feel
like a funnier, more gregarious person because of it. It's interesting to
think about how much of your personality is really "you".

~~~
mathattack
I met someone who did a similar reinvention. He said, "I used to be an
introvert, and one day decided I would be the type of person who gives hugs."
Up until then, I thought being introverted or extroverted was a fixed trait.

~~~
hkmurakami
That's not introvert/extrovert. That's about being social / antisocial.

