2018 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners • Hacker News Board

Re: 2018 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners

#51

Post by sulam » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 11:35 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #49

sulam wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

The exception that proves the rule.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash_Jr.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert

I think this rule is just wrong. Some mathematicians come from privilege, some do not. Even for the ones who do, it's rare that they come from _great_ privilege for the time. They are the children of mayors, not kings -- professors and engineers, not the financial aristocracy.

Re: 2018 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners

#52

Post by enedil » Fri, Aug 03, 2018, 9:57 AM UTC

simion314 wrote: post #12

hackernewsacct wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. If you look at what a mathematician does they sit around and think. You don't have that sort of luxury if you are from a poor family and have to worry about basic survival. In many cases (not all) the people that complete major accomplishment X at young age Y is from an upper middle class to upper class family with lots of life advantages. Not everyone have these advantages early in life and may eventually g…

Is this a problem only in countries where you have to pay a lot to study? I did not had to pay for my higher education and the people that had a high talent and potentials achieved good results, there was no need to work to make money for studying and if you are good you got positions at University or get jobs at high paying companies.

If there's someone exceptional, there are often numerous stipends.

Re: 2018 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners

#53

Post by throwaway080383 » Sat, Aug 04, 2018, 10:30 AM UTC

sulam wrote: post #51

School-Cotton wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exception that proves the rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert I think this rule is just wrong. Some mathematicians come from privilege, some do not. Even for the ones who do, it's rare that they come from _great_ privilege for the time. They are the chil…

Now it seems you're moving the goalposts on what counts as privilege. Do you have any quantitatively backed reason to believe Fields medallists are more likely to come from the financial aristocracy than say Abel prize winners?

Re: 2018 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners

#54

Post by sulam » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 11:15 PM UTC

throwaway080383 wrote: post #53

sulam wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert I think this rule is just wrong. Some mathematicians come from privilege, some do not. Even for the ones who do, it's rare that they come from _great_ privilege for the time. They are the chil…

Now it seems you're moving the goalposts on what counts as privilege. Do you have any quantitatively backed reason to believe Fields medallists are more likely to come from the financial aristocracy than say Abel prize winners?

I don’t have access to a biography of all the Field’s medalists. I am simply pointing out that there is a wide distribution of financial privilege in a list of famous mathematicians that I did not choose. I would argue this is unexceptional, but I point it out because I have trouble with the hypothesis that one must come from privilege to get anywhere in math. If anything I should be asking for the quantitative proof of the hypothesis.