
Alexander Grothendieck, Math Enigma, Dies at 86 - kdavis
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/world/europe/alexander-grothendieck-math-enigma-dies-at-86.html?smid=fb-share
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mccoy
Oh man, I actually cited some of his work in one of my papers. There was a
particular result buried in one of his papers from 1968 that was not well-
understood by mathematicians for almost 20 years until it was resurrected in
less-abstract language in 1986.

The particular result isn't his most famous, but it does underly a lot of
modern research into approximate solutions of NP-hard problems. (See here:
[https://web.math.princeton.edu/~naor/homepage%20files/cutnor...](https://web.math.princeton.edu/~naor/homepage%20files/cutnorm.pdf))

Sad to hear of such a brilliant person passing (even if he does reinforce a
rather negative stereotype of mathematicians).

~~~
gohrt
> even if he does reinforce a rather negative stereotype of mathematicians).

is there some circmstance in which it wouldn't be sad to hear of that _death_
of someone who "reinforce a rather negative stereotype of mathematicians"?
That doesn't sound like a capital offense.

~~~
throwaway10876
> is there some circmstance in which it wouldn't be sad to hear of that death
> of someone who "reinforce a rather negative stereotype of mathematicians"?

There was definitely some rejoicing after a maths professor at my university
died. The most common succinct explanation of this was that he "represented
everything wrong with mathematics as a discipline", and a large part of why
that is bad is that it reinforced negative stereotypes. Not saying the
rejoicing was justified or that the death of a human being isn't sad, but many
did rejoice, for better or worse including me.

Not to say that Grothendieck's death was comparable. AFAIK he never sexually
harassed anyone, or any of the other things said professor did.

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fsiefken
As I was interested in Alexander's philosophical and religious thoughts I came
across summaries of it at the "Grothendieck Circle" formed by some academics
among them Pierre Lochack and Leila Schneps.
[http://www.grothendieckcircle.org/](http://www.grothendieckcircle.org/)

"In 1990, he gave away or destroyed all his papers and disappeared into the
Pyrenees Mountains. For some years, no mathematicians knew where he was.
Pierre Lochak and Leila Schneps, two French algebraic geometers, heard from a
former neighbor of Grothendieck that the “crazy mathematician” had been
spotted in a nearby town. They tracked him down and found him living alone,
doing organic farming. They maintained contact with him for several years, but
now, Schneps says, “he’s not in a state to be visited. It’s not possible to
not quarrel with him – or rather, for him not to quarrel with you.” She
hesitates to call him crazy, though she admits that in a technical sense, that
might be true. “His mental state is very, very special.”
[https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sensitivity-harmony-
thin...](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sensitivity-harmony-things)

I was reminded of the philosophical work of Buckminster Fuller and Alexander's
Flora/Lucifera janus figure reminds me of Carl Jung's Philemon figure. So I
wonder why he lists Freud instead of Jung as 'mutant', also Marcel Légaut,
Teilhard de Chardin and Rudolf Steiner are on that list.

[http://www.ihes.fr/document?id=1723&id_attribute=48](http://www.ihes.fr/document?id=1723&id_attribute=48)
[http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle...](http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle/DieMutanten.pdf)
[http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle...](http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle/Clefsummary.pdf)
[http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf](http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf)

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nnq
Does anyone know where can one find and read these?:

> began devoting himself obsessively to writing what he called his
> “meditations.”

~~~
pyb
Recoltes et Semailles (links posted below), Esquisse d'un Programme (a
mathematical text), and possibly more.

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keithpeter
Anyone know of a published version of Grothendieck's _Reapings and Sowings_?
Mentioned a lot in pages about him, book references currently eluding my
Google-fu.

~~~
mccoy
You may not have much luck... Grothendieck was notoriously private. IIRC, he
officially withdrew every peer-reviewed mathematical manuscript during the
late 80s. There are mimeographed copies floating through the halls of math
departments in France, but I've never actually seen much of his work.

~~~
djulius
Exactly, a lot of his work from the 80s ended up in a cupboard from the math
department of Montpellier and was almost sent to trash during relocation to
new buildings.

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winstonsmith
There is an essay (in English and French) published last month on
Grothendieck's life and work by Pierre Cartier who was a member of Bourbaki
and a friend and colleague of Grothendieck's.

[http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-
by-...](http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-name)

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stared
A friend of my friend it translating biography of Grothendieck from French to
English. If you want to support her effort, here is the crowdfunding site:
[http://www.gofundme.com/7ldiwo](http://www.gofundme.com/7ldiwo)

She already managed to translate a few chapters: [http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle...](http://webusers.imj-
prg.fr/~leila.schneps/grothendieckcircle/Scharlau3.html)

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kasbah
I find the wording in this article really odd. He was not an math enigma he
was a mathematician; he solved enigmas.

>A vexing character himself, Mr. Grothendieck (pronounced GROAT-en-deek)
turned away from mathematics at the height of his powers in the early 1970s

Math powers?

~~~
Mals
Yes, math powers.

It's a commonly used expression in the math community ("powerful
mathematician"). If you ever meet a mathematician as absurdly good as
Grothendieck was, you'll get the meaning ( his methods are sometimes called
"black magic").

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oxama
still his birthday on this math-geeks french website: [http://www.les-
mathematiques.net/](http://www.les-mathematiques.net/)

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jesuslop
duplicated here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8604814](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8604814)

~~~
dang
Normally we would treat these as duplicates, but Grothendieck is exceptional.

(Actually, what we normally would have done is disallow the French-language
article—not because the French language isn't magnificent, but because HN is
an English-language site. But Grothendieck is exceptional, and it was likely
going to take a day for a high-quality English piece to appear.)

~~~
jesuslop
Can't argue that he is exceptional, so I stand corrected :-)

