Yesterday, I visited my friend in Princeton and probably met more smart people over 24 hours than I have in the last 22 years. He is doing very-hard-math-and-physics and has a lot of friends that do very-hard-math-and-physics. I got a nice guided tour of Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study. If you didn't know, the IAS was expressly created to attract Albert Einstein and other prominent European scientists after the war. I also saw the house where Einstein lived, the place where he worked etc. Interestingly, I had visited his home town of Ulm in Germany last May during mon tour de europe.
So this guy was showing me around the Institute for Advanced Study, when we came across this middle aged man in Khaki shirt and half-pants sitting on one of the sofas. My friend knew the man, so I was introduced to him and we shook hands. Then, the two of them start discussing their work. The discussion was a little animated and the middle aged man excitedly went across the room, tore out a piece of paper and began to play with it to explain a concept to my friend . What really struck me was his childlike enthusiasm for what he did. No ego, no conceit, no contrived aura of grandeur. Nothing out of the ordinary except that the guy was Pierre René Deligne, a fields medal winner. The fields medal is the highest prize in Math, awarded once in 4 years (as opposed to the relatively easier Nobel Prize that is doled out every year). I kind of expected him to be all ego and conceit, that makes one want to go, 'Okay okay, you got a Nobel prize, so what?'. I was so wrong. It brought to mind some of those unfortunate souls that one sometimes runs into in life, you know, with this hugely misplaced sense of superiority. They should probably get in touch with the Fields Medal winner closest to them.
I also met bunch of my friend's friends, totally in awe of their talent and all, but sometimes it's not worth being so smart and talented. I sometimes felt like I would rather be with people who laugh at silly things and speak on mundane topics. I had at one time entertained thoughts of (actually regret about not) being a Physicist but it's bloody scary. I am glad I didn't go down that road. Computational biology is works for me.
To end it: A physicist's understanding of relationships.
This should give you an idea :D.
So this guy was showing me around the Institute for Advanced Study, when we came across this middle aged man in Khaki shirt and half-pants sitting on one of the sofas. My friend knew the man, so I was introduced to him and we shook hands. Then, the two of them start discussing their work. The discussion was a little animated and the middle aged man excitedly went across the room, tore out a piece of paper and began to play with it to explain a concept to my friend . What really struck me was his childlike enthusiasm for what he did. No ego, no conceit, no contrived aura of grandeur. Nothing out of the ordinary except that the guy was Pierre René Deligne, a fields medal winner. The fields medal is the highest prize in Math, awarded once in 4 years (as opposed to the relatively easier Nobel Prize that is doled out every year). I kind of expected him to be all ego and conceit, that makes one want to go, 'Okay okay, you got a Nobel prize, so what?'. I was so wrong. It brought to mind some of those unfortunate souls that one sometimes runs into in life, you know, with this hugely misplaced sense of superiority. They should probably get in touch with the Fields Medal winner closest to them.
I also met bunch of my friend's friends, totally in awe of their talent and all, but sometimes it's not worth being so smart and talented. I sometimes felt like I would rather be with people who laugh at silly things and speak on mundane topics. I had at one time entertained thoughts of (actually regret about not) being a Physicist but it's bloody scary. I am glad I didn't go down that road. Computational biology is works for me.
To end it: A physicist's understanding of relationships.
This should give you an idea :D.
1 comment:
Hmm. Most great people have this common feature of humility, quite like the saying "Vidya Vinayene Shobhite". It's usually the rest of the world that is in awe of their erudition.
Sometimes their passion gets mistaken for eccentricity and even arrogance. For instance when they are proving that x thing is x and not y as someone countered, you might hear them go overboard in their impassioned discussion: gesticulations, raising their voice, and the works.
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