[Maths genius living in poverty](http://+
chttp://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/08/20/1156012411120.html/)
It’s too bad. He might makea good actuary in the US, but that requires a level of drive I’m not sure this guy has.
What can I say? Your link doesn’t work. I know a decent cake decorator living in poverty, and your maths genius doesn’t quite manage to displace her in my hierarchy of worry. Lord knows that, like all Americans, I’m a huge fan of insurance actuaries and they deserve a large, subsidized stipend for their art.
He’s choosing to live in obscurity and poverty … it’s part of the archetype: tortured, misunderstood genius. He’s sitting on a seven-figure prize, and refuses it. All because a clique of his academic peers didn’t sufficiently worship him.
It’s one thing to live in poverty, quite another to do so on one’s initiative. But hey, if he really wants to live with his mom on $74/month, when the Americans are offering $1,000,000+ as a prize for work that he is already done? Fine.
And actuaries are paid quite well, at least in the US. No need for subidies.
Actually, this story astounds me. I have never before heard of a mathematical genius giving up a normal life with a university position and living in poverty and/or obscurity.
Hmmm…here’s his wiki page. Apparently it’s not unheard of for talented mathematicians to be kinda-sorta semi-nuts. Interesting as all the SDMB math mavens seem pretty normal.
… or are they…? :dubious:
I dunno. Bose, who worked with Einstein, was relatively normal, and the famous Henri Poincaré himself was a bit absentminded, but certainly not off his rocker.
Of course, the nuts do tend to get more publicity. 
A high school buddy of mine is a huge math geek, and though I wouldn’t call him insane, he has certain…quirks.
I knew this was going to be about Perelman. I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over him. He’s pretty much doing it just to be wacky. Basically, he’s been cultivating an aura of bizarreness since he was in grad school. He’s an amazing mathematician, but also a bit of a nutter. How much is real crazyness and how much is a put on is anybody’s guess. The vibe that I get from people who know him is that it’s mostly for show.
Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Oh yeah, and any time he wants he can have a job at any top university in this or most any other country. Princeton was apparently trying to force him to take paychecks a while back, but he just doesn’t want them. Takes away from the aura of “whacked out hermit mathematician”, don’t you know? The upshot is: he’s not going to die broke in a gutter unless he decides he wants to.
Publicity? All we guys ask is that you lick them. You don’t NEED to put the epic stories concerning them in there. Oh, we won’t stop you, though.
How does it take away from that aura? I’d say it reinforces it.
I wonder what his mum, off whom he is mooching, says about him ignoring the million bucks?
I think what sinjin is saying is that if Perelman accepted a job at Princeton, it would take away from the image he’s trying to cultivate. So he refused the job.
I must admit that there have been are more than one bright mathematicians in the world who have decided to live nonstandard lives (think only of Paul Erdős), but it’s still quite rare. Most mathematicians are quite undistinguishable from other people.