Homage to Alexander Grothendieck

igrothendieck.org

87 points·jjgreen··8 comments

He is one of those for whom I wish I had enough time to understand his ideas.

You do not need to understand all his ideas, just one or two to begin with.

I would suggest the relative viewpoint to geometry as one: is a beautiful concept and not too hard to understand at a rudimentary level. It also provided the springboard for Grothendieck's developments of topoi.

> I would suggest the relative viewpoint to geometry as one: is a beautiful concept and not too hard to understand at a rudimentary level.

See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grothendieck%27s_relative_poin...

I share the translated quote that they have chosen for the frontpage, for people that just read the comments:

> There are no “final words”, no “conclusions” in Récoltes et Semailles, any more than there are in my life, or in yours. There is a wine, aged for a lifetime in the barrels of my being. The last drink you drink will not be better than the first or the hundredth. They are all “the same”, and they are all different.

Seems like empty words to me ... Thankfully Grothendieck mathematical works are more conclusive and more groundbreaking than his thoughts on personal development !

Fair point. I mean, if you compare any philosophical statement against a mathematical one, the philosophical one is always going to be almost empty in comparison :)

“… for 10th anniversary of his death”, must have number dividable by 10 even if it means celebrating person’s death!

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