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Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
21–30 of 34 posts
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#22The title here is absolutely useless. For those who are curious, the article is a biography of Alexander Grothendieck, a mathematician.
Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do…
Yes. Actually.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
No we should not suffix the name of every person in post titles with their occupation. Grothendieck is one of the most influential mathematicians of the last century. This is like demanding clarifications like "this article is about Mark Zuckerburg, a CEO"
Being an influential mathematician doesn't really put you high on most people's awareness. But you're misstating the problem. If the title had been "A country of which nothing is known but the name Obama", I would still have assumed that it was about a little-known historical nation that happened to share a name with the last US president. It's just a really weird, confusing title.
Well, if all you do is read the title, then what does it matter how confusing it is?
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#24The title here is absolutely useless. For those who are curious, the article is a biography of Alexander Grothendieck, a mathematician.
Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do…
Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title?
For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist.
It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothendieck and mathematical motivation" would be better, I think.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's literally word for word the title of the linked article, which makes it a reasonable choice for a title, no?
You can tell it's a terrible title because the only comments are discussing the title and not the content of the article
So...having read the article (honestly!), I'm still not sure why this is the title.
He bounced around Europe as a young man (due to WWII), but he did the vast majority of his work in France. However, Wikipedia says he was technically stateless because he held off on applying for French citizenship.
I would guess the title an allusion to that--and his reclusiveness later in life, but I still feel like I'm either missing something or something was lost in translation. Is it a quote or paraphrase of something?
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#26A layter version (this pdf is cited as [34]) http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-...
Yes! If you're interested, read this instead. The organization and writing has been cleaned up.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#27The title here is absolutely useless. For those who are curious, the article is a biography of Alexander Grothendieck, a mathematician.
Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do…
Perhaps people expect a title to be either helpful or artful. This one is both less than descriptive and uninteresting. People would probably be be less concerned that it wasn't descriptive if the title was artful or clever.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#28A layter version (this pdf is cited as [34]) http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-...
Thanks! Url (belatedly) changed from http://xahlee.info/math/i/Alexander_Grothendieck_cartier.pdf.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do…
Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist. It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothen…
> Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title?
Ouch! The only possible reason for defending it.
Re: Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you know who Gronthendieck is, the title is surprisingly unhelpful.
The title invoked in me a state of mystery, which is perhaps exactly the right way to approach this subject.
I agree that the title was intriguing and although I am not fluent in mathematics at the level discussed in the article, I found the biographical sections very interesting and the writing style to be engaging.
Particularly interesting were the comparisons with Boltzmann and Cantor, apparently also "tortured" or at least socially eccentric, geniuses. My understanding of their work is limited but the author of this article seemed to allude to the risks of, or at least correlations with, psychological instability and research at the extreme frontiers of mathematics. (I know this notion is a tired cliche, but still...)
If anyone out there has an understanding of how Grothendieck "deepened the concept of a geometric point" and feels the urge to explain it in layman terms, I have an upvote for you!