A conversation with Pierre Deligne

Pierre Deligne is one of the 16 greatest mathematicians alive! I had the unbelievable opportunity to talk with him and this is what happened.
He was incredibly gracious with his time and intellect and gave thought provoking answers to some dumb guy in rural kansas.

[@milliern]

When Deligne said the roots of a binomial, such as 5 and -5, are indiscernible in some cases, I said to myself, "absolutely!"

[@adarkol1575]

Thank you sir for interviewing. Its always extremely interesting to hear from mathematicians of the highest caliber.

[@eyesyc]

Thank you for sharing this! What a wonderful conversation.

[@shevafire]

Nice conversation with the the biggest Grothendieck's student and great mathematician.

[@davestephens2658]

He is a very thoughtful man and wildly brilliant human.

[@kthas]

Greater than Grothendieck -- in fact, than any mathematician (according to Serre)

[@shevafire]

@@kthas I love Jean Pierre, I feel like he had a slight complex compared to Grothendieck. especially the latter's working capacity. he mentioned it in an interview with Alain Connes 3 or 4 years ago

[@taopaille-paille4992]

​@@shevafireI think Grothendieck's most important person in his adult life was Serre. I think Grothendieck wished to have more warmth and recognition from Serre. But Serre had his ego too and he is one of the best mathematicians too. Their correspondence is interesting to read

[@davestephens2658]

The way Deligne speaks about Grothendieck made me follow up and ask if he ever contemplated joining him. He never once considered it. Deligne was, is, and will always be focused on mathematics first and foremost. He's spoken about putting it before his wife and kids when he won the Abel prize. I think this alone puts him ahead of Grothendieck.
But to quote Deligne from an email "The idea of linearly ranking mathematicians is very odd to me"

[@thea.igamer3958]

Interview more mathematicians 🎉

[@scottychen2397]

The name of the invariant theorist is
‘Jordan’ who as an 1800- person, felt the core of his mathematical sense of identity in the, not hope *proper*, but hopeful pursuit of using mathematics to Construct!
It being perceived as, perhaps, irritating that some Kid coming out with a respect-demanding result didn’t have the patience to even make it clear it actually *can’t* be used to construct.
In Grothendieck’s mathematics, the classical relationship one has with this ‘art-form’ is, one could say, matured or distilled.
So the craft of Grothendieckian mathematics - with an implied sense of: ‘it’s silently understood as obvious that this stuff can classically produce solutions of a constructive nature’
Finds its core; Pierre Deligne doesn’t necssarily comment on this explicitly, but to me,
This ‘second order’ of mathematics as a craft finding its face in the domain of Classical Thought approaches a what can be recognized as an
Oriental Power.
There’s a distinctly Hindu sense of mystic understanding that goes into such theorems as Hilbert’s Nullstellensatz: a deep wedding between what’s required to prove
@25:00
trusted theorems of existence
And the absolutely Shit-like domain of mathematical science devoted to constructing
Things that are useful in an industrial circumstance.
This is the mystery. And the mathematics of Grothendieck is a system of vocabulary who’s professionally recognized Majesty is a pure reflection (or the mathematics itself can be understood as a refraction) of something that isn’t mathematics itself:
A canonically Hindu understanding
Of the concept of
REINCARNATION

[@tubalcain1039]

I believe he did noteworthy research on the Riemann hypothesis.

[@santafucker1945]

This guy is old AF and yet sharper than I will ever be.

[@davestephens2658]

You aren't alone. His is a very rare mind.