Re: Perelman wins but declines Fields Medal

"JunoExpress" <brennemt@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

The press says the Perelman is unemployed. How does a guy with such a
great mind end up like this?

The word "unemployed" can include "unemployed by choice", which seems
to be Perelman's condition. Your use of the phrase "like this" suggests
that Perelman is in a state that you disapprove of--but there's no obvious
reason to disapprove of a person's choice not to be "employed", particularly
if that person does not thereby burden anyone else who is unwilling to be so
burdened. On the contrary, I for one wish I could achieve "unemployment"
without the concomitant anxiety which the thought of it unreasonably arouses
in me.

...the old curse of Adam, that he must work in order to live,
now becomes a goal to be struggled for, just because we have
the means to produce a surplus, cause of all our woes.
--Paul and Percival Goodman, _Communitas_, 1947

I thought I heard a year or so ago that he
had taken a position at a remote Russian university.

The Steklov Institute is hardly "remote". Perhaps you refer to some
other Russian university?

Lee Rudolph
.