Grothendiek’s Solitude
I am looking forward to reading the upcoming bio ofGrothendiek. Grothendiek’s autobiographical notes are deeply human; more like an introspection diary ala ‘Markings’ than a narrative. For example, his comments on independent thinking:
?These years of isolation laid the foundation for a faith that has never been shaken - neither by the discovery (arriving in Paris at the age of 20), of the full extent of my ignorance and the immensity of what I would be obliged to learn; nor (20 years later) by the turbulent events surrounding my final departure …?
?By this I mean to say: to reach out in my own way to the things I wished to learn, rather than relying on the notions of the consensus, overt or tacit, coming from a more or less extended clan of which I found myself a member, or which for any other reason laid claim to be taken as an authority.?
?… They’ve all done things, often beautiful things, in a context that was already set out before them, which they had no inclination to disturb. Without being aware of it, they’ve remained prisoners of those invisible and despotic circles which delimit the universe of a certain milieu in a given era. To have broken these bounds they would have had to rediscover in themselves that capability which was their birth-right, as it was mine: the capacity to be alone.?
~
This year’s Economics Nobel Laureate may just have the explanation why cutting taxes could discourage open source development.