It's apparent to me that Erdös was autistic. The most hilarious part of Hoffmann's book to me was when he was hospitalized and they had to move him to a bigger room because he had an endless stream of groups of visitors that came to collaborate with him on math papers by his bedside and in multiple languages all at once and when doctors came in he said "don't you see I'm busy? Come back in five hours" hahahaha madlad
I had precisely the same thought -- he's autistic. And mathematics is one of his special interests -- and from the sound of things, probably the only one.
As a junior mathematician I guided Erdös while visiting my university in the early 70´s. I remember going with him to the Swiss consulate. He needed a transit visa through Switzerland. I had to argue the Swiss officer that this tramp-looking homeless man, holding a worn cardboard suitcase in possession of an overused Hungarian passport was actually one of the leading mathematicians on par with Swiss genius Euler. It took some time and some phone calls but he got his visa…
Imagine being a Hungarian spy, and constantly getting distracted by your hobby to the point where no one ever sees you doing anything else. Least productive spy in history.
I will counter with perhaps "a MOST productive" spy - a distraction, which means resources were misdirected so others could spy without being surveilled! 😂😂😂
@@woowooNeedsFaithI mean technically you can just use pen, paper, eraser, and your mind to run any program, the amount of ram you have is the size of your paper
I read his biography, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" in college. Apparently, he couldn't tie his shoes either. He had an interesting life to say the least.
"couldn't" tie his shoes. It's just as likely he was also a genius at fake "helplessness" so he could get people to cook for him, let him live with them rent free, even cut his fruit for him and tie his shoes for him. Basically he can make them his slaves while he becomes a famous mathematician.
@InXLsisDeo it's a joke I'm just saying there's more than one possibility. Did you know him? I could be wrong but I wouldn't just automatically believe him especially knowing he's a genius. People do this kind of thing
@@tw8464 Yeah, it's called weaponized incompetence. It could be he employed that or it could be he actually was that incompetent in some regards outside of mathematics. We might never know for sure.
nah, it's best to be eccentric early on. if you establish yourself early, then when you do something strange, it wont be perceived as out of the ordinary.
Extremely true. You don’t even have to go as far as “eccentric” : try telling a fact that doesn’t please someone (as if reality was a choice), or being a bit confident or passionate about something.. before being successful.
@@user-py6zb3xj9u success is over rated, the truth and an honest living is better, even if we are seen as eccentric or weird. success is useful only to get the attention of those that are vain, in hopes of getting funding, but in the larger scope or life, it's all vanity. humble living, even if seen as eccentric, is better than success.
Only acceptable to be strange and eccentric if you can be bought.. otherwise they try to prison you, of you know the law and how it works, the bypass the law and lock you into a mental health hospital, hoping to shut your brain down so you can't think and share truths that are dangerous to to establishment.
It's not that simple. Most of his work had co-authors. Not only do you need to deliver the proof, you should also specify the contributions of the various authors if you want to have a proof of your work.
I'm reminded of that incident where a man was doing some complicated math on a plane, and the person sitting next to him alerted airline security because they thought he was a terrorist writing in Arabic. 😅
The person in question was an Italian economist who wouldn't entertain the Karen's conversation. It was an international story. A good search phrase for this story is: Italian economist flight mathematics profiled after complaint.
I don't think so. The only pool of "informants" the FBI could draw from would be the mathematicians he lodged with. The info recounted in the video would have come from them, which I find rather creepy. He didn't hang around anyone else. J. Edgar Hoover had an Erdős number of 3.
Comrade Erdos had a cunning way of encrypting and transmitting information using numbers and formulae in his publications. The journals would publish them, the secret services would purchase, read and decode them.
First, a comment - Thank you Tibias - you are indeed a treasure. Second, a recollection - Erdös was also a treasure and he shared himself with everyone. I, a lowly graduate student could ask him questions and he would patiently answer me. This was at the University of Florida during the 1970's. Paul was the sort who would hunt down the Chinese graduate students because he loved to play Go. I never missed one of his seminars - not that I understand them, I was content to sample history in real time. His presence, often lasting a month or more (he was close friends with our Chair) would attract a parade of visiting major mathematicians who would also share their work and give seminars. I am one lucky son-of-a-gun; only wished I could play Go.
That is so cool! I was an undergraduate at UF in the early 2010s. I heard about Erdös having visited. If I recall correctly, there was a paper framed in the department somewhere with some scribbles of his working a problem out. I've always considered myself lucky to have an Erdös Number of 2, but yours is 1!
As Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musician, once said: "Some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they... got that way".
For reasons "that will always remain a mystery" the FBI finally came to the conclusion that he was, and always had been, nothing but a massive nerd who couldn't spy his way out of a phone booth without a friend to help him with directions.
"An atmospheric mind," is a very eloquent way to describe someone. Their head is in the clouds but they arent an airhead. Just atmospheric. Ever since i learned about him ive envied him, ive always required a roommate or partner to keep me away from my worst tendencies but i wish i had the atmospheric talent to be able to live a transient life like him while remaining productive and important in groundbreaking research.
In the mid 1960s both Paul Erdos and Frank Harary were visitors at a university in London (I have forgotten which one) where they shared an office. Harary was fiercely competitive and resolved to always arrive in the office each morning even earlier than Erdos and be busy working when Erdos arrived. Erdos perceived what Harary was up to so upon arrival each morning would ask him (as only he could) : "Vell, vhat theorems have you proved today?" 😅 (at that time Erdos was extremely prolific and had a new proof, almost daily).
Do not judge the guy for consuming so many "stimulants". It was probably the only way he could obtain a regular sleep/wake cycle. He probably had "ADHD" witout being hyper. He probably had one of the many degrees of autism.
he used stimulants as a tool to focus his mind, that's very different from those who abuse stimulants to feel good. drug abuse and drug use are two very different things
"In 1941, Paul Erdős went on a trip with his colleagues Arthur Stone and Shizuo Kakutani. They wanted to look out over the sea from a tower. Thinking only about mathematics, they overlooked a sign saying "No entry". They took a few souvenir photos and were later arrested and interrogated by the FBI for espionage. The misunderstanding was soon cleared up, but the entry in an FBI file later harmed him in the McCarthy era." From the German Wiki article about Erdős. It also says that his mother became the school principal of the communist Bela Kun shortly during his brief reign. It is tragic what distrust in times of tension can lead to. Hopefully we humans can learn from this and from the exemplary effect of science and art, which pursues ideas across borders. For the good of all. Thank you very much for your great videos. Like the video about Landau. It is always great to be remembered on such great minds!
No. Scientists are citizens. Citizens share responsibility. He has to denounce his country and lay down his passport and citizenship if he wants to gain access. Do you even have the slightest idea how many Russian scientists have done so in recent years? Why would Erdos be different and get special treatment? Even if you compare him to the REAL crazy mathematician who was Grothendieck. He went in the opposite direction, going to communist countries, reading advanced algebraic geometry courses to the Vietkong, but he had no citizenship at all. Now this (having no citizenship at all) is what should give a man licence to be a citizen of Earth and talk the talk of doing things that benefit the whole humankind.
"It is tragic what distrust in (any) times" gets you, the chicken and the egg, who started it? either human on earth chills or they don't. On the other hand: the hungry fox talking to the chicken "trust me, come inside my mouth". how would you know you can trust someone, except blind faith.
Everyone needs to read "The man who loved only numbers" the anecdotes about Erdos are a treat. From the SF, to the difference between dying and leaving, he must have been such a hoot.
Lazy and hard working are not ontonyms for some people. I hired a cleaning lady because I had no time to clean my apartment and some colleagues called me lazy.
@@topilinkala1594 First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so naturally, I always give the benefit of the doubt when any questions related to the English language come to my mind. Therefore, I tried to double-check whether a word like 'ontonym' really exists, but I couldn't find it. I think you meant 'antonyms,' though I am not sure. It would be helpful if you could clarify.
Yeah, a lot of people just call you "lazy" if your work doesn't look exactly the way they expect it to- it's like, the kind of person who calls a cashier lazy because they're sitting in front of the till instead of standing. They're doing the same amount of work either way, but people don't consider what the word "work" actually IMPLIES, and just look at the times they in particular have seen the word used. Similarly, many don't see mental and/or emotional work as work.
@@LinkVerse1for a moment, I, native English speaker (though it is not my first language), thought their must be "ontonyms" but I am sure he meant "antonyms" with the anti- negative prefix. Maybe an "ontonym" sounds like it could have to so with Ontology.
I didn't expect to be moved by a video about a mathematician but its because my father was an academic of the same vintage and I recognized in this story a world that I knew growing up that I think no longer exists: one that had room for eccentricity and where there was a global camaraderie of academia of sorts. Even in the FBI files, you see a degree of restraint and observation, no jumping to conclusions, no rush to "act first and deal with the consequences later" that is the norm in the 21st century. My father was also at Minnesota and Madison WI at around the same time as Erdos which is another reason I felt a connection to this video, although I don't know if they ever interacted being from very different disciplines. Speaking of the FBI, wouldn't it be nice to imagine that they eventually grew fond of the old boy and went from keeping an eye on him to quietly looking out for him? I doubt it though. They closed the file in 1990 which is to say only after the collapse of the Soviet Union because there would no longer be any point.
It’s interesting how some peoples gifts and handicaps define a life. This story reminds me of Rilkes letters to a young poet. He talks about doing the one thing you have to do. The thing that keeps you up at night if you don’t do it. Erdos found his art form and did it all his life. His way of being is ahead of his time.
These are all traits of being on the spectrum while also being high-functioning. I don't mean the cliches from Rainman - well, perhaps a little - but I've worked with autistic people and have an autistic son and the total inability to locate items that a four year old would have no difficulty with, ie in a fridge, or to seemingly be unable to wield a knife, is bang on the money for some people with certain types of autism.
@@anglaismoyen Nah, high-functioning refers to cognitive functioning - maths in this case. But some 'normal' behaviours can indeed seem 'low-functioning', you're right
In our chess club we have a number of children who I would say "are gifted in their powers of concentration & focus". In addition our Chess Mentor is obsessed by Chess & thinks about nothing else and exhibits similar behaviours as Erdos. My job is to ensure that they a comfortable and help them integrate with the other players socially.
@@anglaismoyenthe descriptors low or high functioning are outdated and scientifically retired for a bunch of reasons and this is actually one of them. Since people do a myriad of different things, it’s hard to label the whole as high or low functioning, smart or stupid and so on.
8:00 "One informant claimed he was a Communist at heart" I think any true academic is a (small c) communist at heart, because the concepts of all people contributing what they can to the collective knowledge of the species is what academic endeavours are all about. This does not mean that any academic is necessarily supportive of any (big c) Communist party.
Erdõs asking for grapefruit after taking his morning amphetamine is wild. Last time i did that i had a psychotic break because the grapefruit made it last forever. 🤮😵
Or more like forest-y, lol, But his father (who is also reknowned in Hungary) was born as Engländer (English in german )but changed his surname to the more hungarian sounding Erdős as did many jews at the time.
Truly a peculiarly intriguing man, and a brilliant mathematician!!!!!!! Thank you Tibees, for sharing information about this fascinating individual !!!!!!!😊
Paul Hoffman's "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth" described Erdős autistic behavior without using the word. Alibris lists hardcover copies for $4 or so. But Paul Dirac is still my man crush.
I had the pleasure of studying Mathematics abroad in Budapest, Hungary. Was one of the best experiences ever. If you are a Math Undergraduate/Master’s student, I highly recommend you check out the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program (you don’t even have to be a student to apply - just make sure you meet the program requirements which I believe is having taken a course in Real Analysis and/or Abstract Algebra).
The oath mentioned at 7:10, that Erdős refused to sign, UCLA was still making people sign that when I was hired there in about 2008. I didn't have the energy to make a stink about it.
I can now see the Erdos derivative statement in the software devpt context: "A programmer is a simple device for turning coffee into code" {Let's also not forget pizza too!} 🤣
I only watched a couple of minutes but this broke my heart.. he wasn’t ‘strange’. He had autism and ADHD.. Why do we live in a world that rewards and idolised psychopathic narcissists yet can’t meet the basic needs of intergenerational geniuses.? Why was the government able to afford clandestine spies to track him but not a carer to feed and help him dress..? Let alone offer him a stable home as a place to shower the world with his unimaginable gifts..? we can all do better..
Did you even watch the video? He lived the way he wanted too. It was his choice. Why are you trying to put him in a box when he so clearly wanted to live outside of it?
I agree that he was somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. His inability to function in the world: locating and cutting a grapefruit, or even tying his shoelaces, contrasts sharply with his prodigious mathematical gifts and preoccupation.
I love seeing you, and always enjoy your posts ! I recall something that included a discussion of one of his articles which was really great. I am sorry that I cannot recommend any particular article of his that might be popular. Thanks.
Your videos are so lovely in the sense that, despite them being just a talk by the host, they never fail to keep us engaged. It's not easy to only be talking with no animations and yet keep the viewers engaged. ❤🙌
The FBI's conduct in this matter was morally wrong, and should be deterred by courts of law imposing consequences adverse to the personal interests of the culpable persons.
I lived through parts of this era and can say that the world has changed a great deal since the 1950s. Today, courts have and do protect our rights for the most part, but legal loopholes will always exist that allow government to look at all of our lives, whether we like it or not. By the way, spies have been a part of the sciences I've worked in since 1980. I suspect that all the major political players engage in it, as do most major corporations. Most of us accept it as an occupational constant and we're always being warned and trained about it. The FBI still does a lot of this warning work.
@@mysterion4301 But what constitutes "a spy"? I've heard it said that when Leon Theremin worked in New York City, he was a "spy". He was an employee of the Soviet Union, and I believe his visa said as much. What was this "spying" that he was doing? Well, his job was to read the Patent Gazette, and find anything that might be useful to Soviet interests, and photocopy or photograph it, and send it to Moscow. In other words, he was looking through material that by definition was declassified. The only gain to the Soviet Union was that they'd get this unclassified information slightly faster, and with all of the useless stuff filtered out. That's not "spying" at all. That's "research". There was no breach of governmental secrecy. It's just using PUBLICLY AVAILABLE science to benefit another country. But you still meet people who call him a "spy", as if reading a magazine that everyone in the world can legally read is "spying". This is not about a person's actions, but, in his case, about a cause being served, even though it's served by legal means. When the FBI considered mere LOYALTY to a cause, without any action that was otherwise cri'min'al to advance that cause, as being something to investigate, they crossed a line and became the kind of police-state to which they'd insist they were opposed.
I studied physics at university and the mathematics faculty was in the same building. I remember seeing some mathematicians walking up & down the hall. And we use it to say "if you see him in the subway waiting for the train to arrive, everyone will think he's a homeless". And we were right. We saw him in the subway years later and everyone was avoiding him. I'm talking about a random maths teacher, not Erdös.
Though Dirac in old age was a professor at Florida State University, fleeing to cooler Britain in summer. There’s a memorial plaque for Dirac in Westminster Abbey, but when he died he was at Florida State, and is buried nearby.
I need to learn more about this man. I relate to him a lot and I think if I could have a similar life style, but less extreme, that would be a pretty good life for me.
Imagine a math gnome showing up to your house out of the blue and working on proofs with you until you shoo him out or he deems you too stupid and gets bored
I have had the pleasure of working with some great people who I call borderline crazy they are so incredibly intelligent in their work that every thing else is non existent… I walked into a workshop with this one person who was so engrossed in what he was doing he didn’t even notice his trousers were around his knees… I call them borderline crazy not because they are crazy but because they have very little in the way of common sense stuff that us mere normies do on a daily basis without even thinking about it… but they struggle in the real world with normal everyday tasks and some could not find a bag of frozen peas in a supermarket with a map… but ask them a question about their subject and they will blow your mind with the information they know…
Actually, German (a standard second language for a schooled Budapest Jew in the first half ot the 20th century) with a thick Hungarian accent but, you are right, using the Yiddish term "meshugga" for "crazy".
@@shlogoff :-) I am indeed. Also the sociocultural background (same as my family's, that's how I know): the rather Hungarian-assimilated mid-20th century Budapest Jewish intelligentsia (Erdős's father, a teacher of maths was a university friend of Theodor von Karman's) was already generations away from the Yiddish of their forefathers. A lot of expressive words remained though, used in both German and Hungarian.
@@varbalvarbal again, he was Hungarian, not German. Why would a Hungarian be speaking German, even if he learned it in high school? I know Yiddish, and I know some German. That was Yiddish. So unless you can prove otherwise...
God, imagine being the agent assigned to him and telling your boss, "Chief, I don't think he's an agent. I think he's just a weirdo"
My life goal is for my own assigned agent to have to report exactly that.
... and if weirdos are a problem, then how do we explain DJT? 😁
Actually, that's probably why they followed him, was he was weird, and it was more for his protection, and they saw him as an asset.
The agency seemed to like to track "commies" to expand its budget while letting actual spies get away with it
@@AdrianColley sounds like something a spy would say
It's apparent to me that Erdös was autistic. The most hilarious part of Hoffmann's book to me was when he was hospitalized and they had to move him to a bigger room because he had an endless stream of groups of visitors that came to collaborate with him on math papers by his bedside and in multiple languages all at once and when doctors came in he said "don't you see I'm busy? Come back in five hours" hahahaha madlad
So...not just "Silly smart"? It's a phrase being used referring to intelligent people who prove to fail common sense.
I had precisely the same thought -- he's autistic. And mathematics is one of his special interests -- and from the sound of things, probably the only one.
@@NondumisoNyembezi that's reductive
He presumably had some degree of ADHD, judging by his reaction to stimulants like Ritalin
@dihexa7256 Good observation
As a junior mathematician I guided Erdös while visiting my university in the early 70´s. I remember going with him to the Swiss consulate. He needed a transit visa through Switzerland. I had to argue the Swiss officer that this tramp-looking homeless man, holding a worn cardboard suitcase in possession of an overused Hungarian passport was actually one of the leading mathematicians on par with Swiss genius Euler. It took some time and some phone calls but he got his visa…
You are so lucky
Is there anything else about him you know?
Meeting Erdos: "So, what are you working on?" A very special man.
I read his autobiography... everyone came and gone, no exception.
@@Oxygenationatom Read his autobiography.
Imagine being a Hungarian spy, and constantly getting distracted by your hobby to the point where no one ever sees you doing anything else. Least productive spy in history.
😅😅🤣That is one hilarious comment
erdos has breached our defenses
@@birdbeakbeardneck3617 You've seen what he's done to our colleagues' houses!
I will counter with perhaps "a MOST productive" spy - a distraction, which means resources were misdirected so others could spy without being surveilled! 😂😂😂
@ Genius!
Erdős only needed 4 things to do his mathematical work: his mind, pen, paper, and amphetamine.
he's just like me fr
The spirit animal of science we never knew we had 🫡
That applies to programing.
@@kellymoses8566 So you don't need a computer?
@@woowooNeedsFaithI mean technically you can just use pen, paper, eraser, and your mind to run any program, the amount of ram you have is the size of your paper
I read his biography, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" in college. Apparently, he couldn't tie his shoes either. He had an interesting life to say the least.
"couldn't" tie his shoes. It's just as likely he was also a genius at fake "helplessness" so he could get people to cook for him, let him live with them rent free, even cut his fruit for him and tie his shoes for him. Basically he can make them his slaves while he becomes a famous mathematician.
@@tw8464 you clearly don't understand these superior minds.
he's just like me fr fr
@InXLsisDeo it's a joke I'm just saying there's more than one possibility. Did you know him? I could be wrong but I wouldn't just automatically believe him especially knowing he's a genius. People do this kind of thing
@@tw8464 Yeah, it's called weaponized incompetence. It could be he employed that or it could be he actually was that incompetent in some regards outside of mathematics. We might never know for sure.
don't you ever dare have an eccentric personality until after you're successful.
Sad reality. Society seems to allow neurodivergent people only if they are also prollific geniuses.
nah, it's best to be eccentric early on.
if you establish yourself early, then when you do something strange, it wont be perceived as out of the ordinary.
Extremely true. You don’t even have to go as far as “eccentric” : try telling a fact that doesn’t please someone (as if reality was a choice), or being a bit confident or passionate about something.. before being successful.
@@user-py6zb3xj9u success is over rated, the truth and an honest living is better, even if we are seen as eccentric or weird.
success is useful only to get the attention of those that are vain, in hopes of getting funding, but in the larger scope or life, it's all vanity.
humble living, even if seen as eccentric, is better than success.
Only acceptable to be strange and eccentric if you can be bought.. otherwise they try to prison you, of you know the law and how it works, the bypass the law and lock you into a mental health hospital, hoping to shut your brain down so you can't think and share truths that are dangerous to to establishment.
"How do you want to pay your rent?"
"I pay in mathematical proofs."
Was way ahead of Bitcoin's "proof of work"
It's not that simple. Most of his work had co-authors. Not only do you need to deliver the proof, you should also specify the contributions of the various authors if you want to have a proof of your work.
@@u.v.s.5583Perhaps co-authors took responsibility for that. It sounds like Erdos preferred to show up, help with proofs, and wander off.
I'd suspect him of being an alien after that fruit incident 😳
You may be correct.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)
Like someone with lost senses having more focus in others, he seemed to forgo having any common sense in favor of math sense.
Of course he was an alien. All hungaryans are!
That is the best comment🤪
I'm glad that he wasn't a surgeon.
I'm reminded of that incident where a man was doing some complicated math on a plane, and the person sitting next to him alerted airline security because they thought he was a terrorist writing in Arabic. 😅
When my kids ask what it was like after 9/11, I'm going to tell them this story
@patrickwright8552 yuuuup
@@patrickwright8552 I remember that in the news. It was probably partial differential equations.
The person in question was an Italian economist who wouldn't entertain the Karen's conversation.
It was an international story.
A good search phrase for this story is: Italian economist flight mathematics profiled after complaint.
he was economist Professor Guido Menzio :)
Of course, comrade Paul is always one step ahead of the FBI. We are so proud of him.
I don't think so. The only pool of "informants" the FBI could draw from would be the mathematicians he lodged with. The info recounted in the video would have come from them, which I find rather creepy. He didn't hang around anyone else.
J. Edgar Hoover had an Erdős number of 3.
Too bad today's communists are so devoid of both science and mathematics...
One would say he was very calculating spy
They had no proof. Paul had all the proofs.
Comrade Erdos had a cunning way of encrypting and transmitting information using numbers and formulae in his publications. The journals would publish them, the secret services would purchase, read and decode them.
Honestly we don't really think he's a spy, but he's definitely weird so we're gunna keep stalking him just in case...
Could you guys send a different van I can hear the people surveiling me laughing so loud it's like a laugh track, not cool guys. Let me plot in peace.
At least they could catch the amphetamine mules who used to swarm the places Erdos frequented.
First, a comment - Thank you Tibias - you are indeed a treasure.
Second, a recollection - Erdös was also a treasure and he shared himself with everyone. I, a lowly graduate student could ask him questions and he would patiently answer me. This was at the University of Florida during the 1970's. Paul was the sort who would hunt down the Chinese graduate students because he loved to play Go. I never missed one of his seminars - not that I understand them, I was content to sample history in real time. His presence, often lasting a month or more (he was close friends with our Chair) would attract a parade of visiting major mathematicians who would also share their work and give seminars. I am one lucky son-of-a-gun; only wished I could play Go.
That is so cool! I was an undergraduate at UF in the early 2010s. I heard about Erdös having visited. If I recall correctly, there was a paper framed in the department somewhere with some scribbles of his working a problem out. I've always considered myself lucky to have an Erdös Number of 2, but yours is 1!
As Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musician, once said: "Some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they... got that way".
As a hungarian, when you said the FBI stopped tracking him in 1990 I took a momenteraly stop, nodded and said: Yeah, that checks out.
They did it one last time for old time's sake 😂
For reasons "that will always remain a mystery" the FBI finally came to the conclusion that he was, and always had been, nothing but a massive nerd who couldn't spy his way out of a phone booth without a friend to help him with directions.
Only pen and paper? No, no, that's philosophers. Mathematicians need pen, paper and a paper waste basket.
Ultimately, math and philosophy seek the same answers.
Math is philosophy at its purest. Just a brain attempting to understand reallity any way it can and in silence.
@@canchero724I think philosophy is math’s initial application.
Philosophy is as useful to mathematicians as ornithology is to birds.
😂@@hrvojedjurdjevic2123
"An atmospheric mind," is a very eloquent way to describe someone. Their head is in the clouds but they arent an airhead. Just atmospheric.
Ever since i learned about him ive envied him, ive always required a roommate or partner to keep me away from my worst tendencies but i wish i had the atmospheric talent to be able to live a transient life like him while remaining productive and important in groundbreaking research.
“Another roof another proof”
God, I can’t imagine this life but he seems so cool
In the mid 1960s both Paul Erdos and Frank Harary were visitors at a university in London (I have forgotten which one) where they shared an office. Harary was fiercely competitive and resolved to always arrive in the office each morning even earlier than Erdos and be busy working when Erdos arrived. Erdos perceived what Harary was up to so upon arrival each morning would ask him (as only he could) : "Vell, vhat theorems have you proved today?" 😅
(at that time Erdos was extremely prolific and had a new proof, almost daily).
Pretty sure that obsession is not what one should wish for. It's hard enough growing up with one.
Discovery can be intoxicating. Now imagine having discoveries every week. Sheesh. You'd get addicted and not be sorry.
some people are just adventurous like that... it bores them to just be in one place... he was one of them
Do not judge the guy for consuming so many "stimulants". It was probably the only way he could obtain a regular sleep/wake cycle. He probably had "ADHD" witout being hyper. He probably had one of the many degrees of autism.
All the degrees
he used stimulants as a tool to focus his mind, that's very different from those who abuse stimulants to feel good. drug abuse and drug use are two very different things
ADHD and autism are very common co-morbidities in fact.
As someone who knows this subject very well, thank you for this comment.
guy: thinks about numbers
fbi: ayo???
- Can I renew my passport so I can travel and stay legally with my overseas friends?
FreedomLand 🦅: Yo homie that's some communist shit.
The numbers, Mason!!
@@mostm8589 write this reply again as a comment bro 😂😂
(So more people see and share a laugh)
Erdos inspired me to mathematics and design 29 years ago. He's been a hero of mine :) Thank you!
This is the kind of content I live for. I love learning about the beautifully strange humans who shaped the world
"In 1941, Paul Erdős went on a trip with his colleagues Arthur Stone and Shizuo Kakutani. They wanted to look out over the sea from a tower. Thinking only about mathematics, they overlooked a sign saying "No entry". They took a few souvenir photos and were later arrested and interrogated by the FBI for espionage. The misunderstanding was soon cleared up, but the entry in an FBI file later harmed him in the McCarthy era."
From the German Wiki article about Erdős. It also says that his mother became the school principal of the communist Bela Kun shortly during his brief reign.
It is tragic what distrust in times of tension can lead to. Hopefully we humans can learn from this and from the exemplary effect of science and art, which pursues ideas across borders. For the good of all.
Thank you very much for your great videos. Like the video about Landau. It is always great to be remembered on such great minds!
Americans think everybody is out to get them. They don't know that not the whole world is as aggresive as them.
No. Scientists are citizens. Citizens share responsibility. He has to denounce his country and lay down his passport and citizenship if he wants to gain access.
Do you even have the slightest idea how many Russian scientists have done so in recent years? Why would Erdos be different and get special treatment?
Even if you compare him to the REAL crazy mathematician who was Grothendieck. He went in the opposite direction, going to communist countries, reading advanced algebraic geometry courses to the Vietkong, but he had no citizenship at all. Now this (having no citizenship at all) is what should give a man licence to be a citizen of Earth and talk the talk of doing things that benefit the whole humankind.
"It is tragic what distrust in (any) times" gets you, the chicken and the egg, who started it? either human on earth chills or they don't.
On the other hand: the hungry fox talking to the chicken "trust me, come inside my mouth".
how would you know you can trust someone, except blind faith.
He was so weirdős!
Haha
Thank you, had to look so deep for this pun.
One of the truest mathematician's ever
What's an "ever", and how can a mathematician possess one?
Truly the Diogenes of mathematics
Thank you for making video about him! Pure soul, pure mind. Regards from Serbia
Wonderful video. Meticulously researched and clearly presented. Thank you!
Everyone needs to read "The man who loved only numbers" the anecdotes about Erdos are a treat. From the SF, to the difference between dying and leaving, he must have been such a hoot.
I so hope SF here means special forces
@CapitalG137 supreme fascist, Erdos name for god.
Okay that's hilarious.
Excellent video on a fascinating guy. It is so nice to hear a human voice not AI.
Especially Tibbees' :)
Erdos worked 19 hours a day... is also lazy... sheesh. I have to doubt these records entirely if they thought someone like Erdos was lazy!
Lazy and hard working are not ontonyms for some people. I hired a cleaning lady because I had no time to clean my apartment and some colleagues called me lazy.
Sometimes, when people don't understand your work, they act like your work is unproductive and call you lazy.
@@topilinkala1594 First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so naturally, I always give the benefit of the doubt when any questions related to the English language come to my mind. Therefore, I tried to double-check whether a word like 'ontonym' really exists, but I couldn't find it. I think you meant 'antonyms,' though I am not sure. It would be helpful if you could clarify.
Yeah, a lot of people just call you "lazy" if your work doesn't look exactly the way they expect it to- it's like, the kind of person who calls a cashier lazy because they're sitting in front of the till instead of standing.
They're doing the same amount of work either way, but people don't consider what the word "work" actually IMPLIES, and just look at the times they in particular have seen the word used.
Similarly, many don't see mental and/or emotional work as work.
@@LinkVerse1for a moment, I, native English speaker (though it is not my first language), thought their must be "ontonyms" but I am sure he meant "antonyms" with the anti- negative prefix. Maybe an "ontonym" sounds like it could have to so with Ontology.
I can't imagine anyone who would be less concerned about having an FBI file than Erdős!
“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way” - Jessica Rabbit
Perfect analogy, but Jessica is way better looking than Erdös.
I didn't expect to be moved by a video about a mathematician but its because my father was an academic of the same vintage and I recognized in this story a world that I knew growing up that I think no longer exists: one that had room for eccentricity and where there was a global camaraderie of academia of sorts. Even in the FBI files, you see a degree of restraint and observation, no jumping to conclusions, no rush to "act first and deal with the consequences later" that is the norm in the 21st century. My father was also at Minnesota and Madison WI at around the same time as Erdos which is another reason I felt a connection to this video, although I don't know if they ever interacted being from very different disciplines.
Speaking of the FBI, wouldn't it be nice to imagine that they eventually grew fond of the old boy and went from keeping an eye on him to quietly looking out for him? I doubt it though. They closed the file in 1990 which is to say only after the collapse of the Soviet Union because there would no longer be any point.
It’s interesting how some peoples gifts and handicaps define a life. This story reminds me of Rilkes letters to a young poet. He talks about doing the one thing you have to do. The thing that keeps you up at night if you don’t do it. Erdos found his art form and did it all his life. His way of being is ahead of his time.
"Peoples" is plural and "people's" is singular possessive.
@@slappy8941 people is already plural. Peoples doesn't make any sense
@@genekisayan6564 It does. It means multiple distinct groups of people.
This is the idiocy of the US and danger of ideology, they simply can't imagine that anyone can exist outside their reference frame.
Very nice! Erdős has long been one of my heroes. _Köszönöm szépen!_
Why?
“Autism didn’t exist in my day!”….
Thanks!
The FBI investigates anyone with odd intelligent behaviour.
Yep
These are all traits of being on the spectrum while also being high-functioning. I don't mean the cliches from Rainman - well, perhaps a little - but I've worked with autistic people and have an autistic son and the total inability to locate items that a four year old would have no difficulty with, ie in a fridge, or to seemingly be unable to wield a knife, is bang on the money for some people with certain types of autism.
Wouldn't that be low functioning?
@@anglaismoyen Nah, high-functioning refers to cognitive functioning - maths in this case. But some 'normal' behaviours can indeed seem 'low-functioning', you're right
In our chess club we have a number of children who I would say "are gifted in their powers of concentration & focus". In addition our Chess Mentor is obsessed by Chess & thinks about nothing else and exhibits similar behaviours as Erdos. My job is to ensure that they a comfortable and help them integrate with the other players socially.
@@anglaismoyenthe descriptors low or high functioning are outdated and scientifically retired for a bunch of reasons and this is actually one of them. Since people do a myriad of different things, it’s hard to label the whole as high or low functioning, smart or stupid and so on.
I think sometimes if you don't know where it is you can't find it even if it's nearby. I've experienced this@@Blitterbug
8:00 "One informant claimed he was a Communist at heart"
I think any true academic is a (small c) communist at heart, because the concepts of all people contributing what they can to the collective knowledge of the species is what academic endeavours are all about. This does not mean that any academic is necessarily supportive of any (big c) Communist party.
Erdõs asking for grapefruit after taking his morning amphetamine is wild. Last time i did that i had a psychotic break because the grapefruit made it last forever. 🤮😵
Ah so that's why he didn't know how to use the knife then.
What a wonderful character, and teacher. I love to hear about those servants of our humanity. I would have loved to have met him.
Haven’t seen any comments on Tibees herself. What a kind loving soft spoken young lady. She is such a breath of fresh air.
Thank you so very much for making this video about the neglected, but true genius. Tears in my eyes, literally.
The book about him - the man who loved only numbers - is a great read.
wow, fascinating! thanks for making this video Tibees
Erdos is a literal hero of mine
Choose again
@@nineteenfortyeightno -medic from tf2
These documentaries you show are really, really good, very educational, and intriguing. Thank you for your work.
Erdo means " forest" in Hungarian
Thank you. I once had a work colleague who, leaving a phone message, said "My name's Malcolm Bigwood, as in 'forest'."
@@David_K_Booth He must have been a cousin of Hugh Mungus.
Thanks for that. Really.
Or more like forest-y, lol, But his father (who is also reknowned in Hungary) was born as Engländer (English in german )but changed his surname to the more hungarian sounding Erdős as did many jews at the time.
Run, forest, run!
Truly a peculiarly intriguing man, and a brilliant mathematician!!!!!!! Thank you Tibees, for sharing information about this fascinating individual !!!!!!!😊
At least the FBI can be excused by not being an 'intelligence' agency, ha.
Nice video Tibees, have a great 2025! Greetings from Rosario, Argentina.
Paul Hoffman's "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth" described Erdős autistic behavior without using the word. Alibris lists hardcover copies for $4 or so. But Paul Dirac is still my man crush.
I definitely thought he was autistic. Reminds me of me, except I hate math.
The original submitted title for the book was "The Man Who Loved Numbers and Amphetamines" but it was rejected by the publisher.
@@ianstopher9111 ; Dr. Erdős should have been the lead in Breaking Bad.
I loved the term "atmospheric mind"...🤣
I had the pleasure of studying Mathematics abroad in Budapest, Hungary. Was one of the best experiences ever. If you are a Math Undergraduate/Master’s student, I highly recommend you check out the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program (you don’t even have to be a student to apply - just make sure you meet the program requirements which I believe is having taken a course in Real Analysis and/or Abstract Algebra).
The oath mentioned at 7:10, that Erdős refused to sign, UCLA was still making people sign that when I was hired there in about 2008. I didn't have the energy to make a stink about it.
I can now see the Erdos derivative statement in the software devpt context: "A programmer is a simple device for turning coffee into code" {Let's also not forget pizza too!} 🤣
Ive been on a project for 9 months
8 hours a day on average.
4 notebooks full.
My head hurts from thinking in multiple dimensions in a fractal nature.
Maybe talk to a psychiatrist about it
What's your project? - mathematician here
@@MrMctastics Troll vs Troll. The "channel doesn't have any content". times two. (see below you, above me.)
This reminds me of Sophus Lie, who got arrested in France because people thought he was a German spy.
He was a real methematician
As opposed to an imaginary one?
I see what you did there.
@@slappy8941 well he was negative, but since he was homeless he didn't have a square roof.
I only watched a couple of minutes but this broke my heart.. he wasn’t ‘strange’. He had autism and ADHD..
Why do we live in a world that rewards and idolised psychopathic narcissists yet can’t meet the basic needs of intergenerational geniuses.?
Why was the government able to afford clandestine spies to track him but not a carer to feed and help him dress..?
Let alone offer him a stable home as a place to shower the world with his unimaginable gifts..? we can all do better..
So long as looking after him allowed him to flit around the world as he saw fit. It seems that that was an integral part of his genius.
Who decides that the person should be “cared for” by the government? Does the person being “cared” for have any free will or choice in the matter?
He was cared for by all those people he sponged off.
Did you even watch the video? He lived the way he wanted too. It was his choice. Why are you trying to put him in a box when he so clearly wanted to live outside of it?
as someone with autism, i am so happy to see representation
We don't need more representation in maths😂😂😂 we have enough
I'm not so sure he was autistic. He actually liked collaborating with people. I don't.
OK, he probably was, just...quite different from me.
I agree that he was somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. His inability to function in the world: locating and cutting a grapefruit, or even tying his shoelaces, contrasts sharply with his prodigious mathematical gifts and preoccupation.
I mean... probably
I love seeing you, and always enjoy your posts ! I recall something that included a discussion of one of his articles which was really great. I am sorry that I cannot recommend any particular article of his that might be popular.
Thanks.
What if he was such a good spy that he just never got caught...
excellent video, loved getting to know a bit more about this brilliant man :)
He did a great service to the United States by keeping all of those agents employed.
Valeu!
The best channel in universe :-) Many thanks Tibees
Now that is one Nomad genius whose sole raison d'être is the pursuit of knowledge wherever it may lead him!
Wow! I knew a lot about his research but I have never heard anything about him as a person. This is a very cool video, thank you!
Love your content here and all stuff you share with us. Thank you!! Best regards from Brazil .😊😉
The man who loved amphetamines…. And math
"It doesnt matter" whoooo boy the amount of times ive said that in a rush to record or practice
Genius, marches to the beat of a different drum than the rest of us. Their world is very different !
The tism is strong with this one haha
Your videos are so lovely in the sense that, despite them being just a talk by the host, they never fail to keep us engaged. It's not easy to only be talking with no animations and yet keep the viewers engaged. ❤🙌
She also has a wonderfully soothing voice. I should probably record it for nights when I can't fall asleep 🤪
@@cybervigilante ye! 🥰
so lovely
The FBI's conduct in this matter was morally wrong, and should be deterred by courts of law imposing consequences adverse to the personal interests of the culpable persons.
I lived through parts of this era and can say that the world has changed a great deal since the 1950s. Today, courts have and do protect our rights for the most part, but legal loopholes will always exist that allow government to look at all of our lives, whether we like it or not.
By the way, spies have been a part of the sciences I've worked in since 1980. I suspect that all the major political players engage in it, as do most major corporations. Most of us accept it as an occupational constant and we're always being warned and trained about it. The FBI still does a lot of this warning work.
@@mysterion4301 But what constitutes "a spy"? I've heard it said that when Leon Theremin worked in New York City, he was a "spy". He was an employee of the Soviet Union, and I believe his visa said as much. What was this "spying" that he was doing? Well, his job was to read the Patent Gazette, and find anything that might be useful to Soviet interests, and photocopy or photograph it, and send it to Moscow. In other words, he was looking through material that by definition was declassified. The only gain to the Soviet Union was that they'd get this unclassified information slightly faster, and with all of the useless stuff filtered out. That's not "spying" at all. That's "research". There was no breach of governmental secrecy. It's just using PUBLICLY AVAILABLE science to benefit another country. But you still meet people who call him a "spy", as if reading a magazine that everyone in the world can legally read is "spying". This is not about a person's actions, but, in his case, about a cause being served, even though it's served by legal means. When the FBI considered mere LOYALTY to a cause, without any action that was otherwise cri'min'al to advance that cause, as being something to investigate, they crossed a line and became the kind of police-state to which they'd insist they were opposed.
Oh no, not the moral police
I studied physics at university and the mathematics faculty was in the same building. I remember seeing some mathematicians walking up & down the hall.
And we use it to say "if you see him in the subway waiting for the train to arrive, everyone will think he's a homeless".
And we were right. We saw him in the subway years later and everyone was avoiding him.
I'm talking about a random maths teacher, not Erdös.
LMFAO “Is your brain open? Are you ready yet?”
As a Hungarian i really appreciate you doing a proper pronunciation :)
Thx for you beeing you Toby
He had the perfect cover to be a spy.
A striking reminder of Terry Davis. Thank God this Paul Erdős lived to be full of days.
I could fall asleep by listening to your voice toby..🤩
Great inspiration, thank you
P.A.M. Dirac was probably a kindred spirit.
Though Dirac in old age was a professor at Florida State University, fleeing to cooler Britain in summer. There’s a memorial plaque for Dirac in Westminster Abbey, but when he died he was at Florida State, and is buried nearby.
if he was a musician, he would probably have been in the grateful dead.
Have a happy new year Tibees
I need to learn more about this man. I relate to him a lot and I think if I could have a similar life style, but less extreme, that would be a pretty good life for me.
Dude sounds like a fun friend lmao🤍
except when he ruins your kitchen
Imagine a math gnome showing up to your house out of the blue and working on proofs with you until you shoo him out or he deems you too stupid and gets bored
The world needs to know about this man. He was so awesome.
Excellent work on this video. Fascinating
Erdos is one of the greatest! Always drink coffee for maths he said.
I have had the pleasure of working with some great people who I call borderline crazy they are so incredibly intelligent in their work that every thing else is non existent…
I walked into a workshop with this one person who was so engrossed in what he was doing he didn’t even notice his trousers were around his knees… I call them borderline crazy not because they are crazy but because they have very little in the way of common sense stuff that us mere normies do on a daily basis without even thinking about it… but they struggle in the real world with normal everyday tasks and some could not find a bag of frozen peas in a supermarket with a map… but ask them a question about their subject and they will blow your mind with the information they know…
Fascinating, thank you.
My new favorite way to wake people up. "Is your brain open?"
Nice video, well organized, I personally enjoyed, start to finish. Thank you for your efforts. HuaHin Thailand
He's speaking Yiddish at 12:20
Actually, German (a standard second language for a schooled Budapest Jew in the first half ot the 20th century) with a thick Hungarian accent but, you are right, using the Yiddish term "meshugga" for "crazy".
@@varbalvarbal A Hungarian Jew speaking German with Hebrew = Yiddish.
I'm sure you're aware that Yiddish is a Germanic language with a lot of Hebrew.
@@shlogoff :-) I am indeed. Also the sociocultural background (same as my family's, that's how I know): the rather Hungarian-assimilated mid-20th century Budapest Jewish intelligentsia (Erdős's father, a teacher of maths was a university friend of Theodor von Karman's) was already generations away from the Yiddish of their forefathers. A lot of expressive words remained though, used in both German and Hungarian.
@@varbalvarbal again, he was Hungarian, not German.
Why would a Hungarian be speaking German, even if he learned it in high school?
I know Yiddish, and I know some German.
That was Yiddish.
So unless you can prove otherwise...
@@shlogoff I know German and a bit of Yiddish. That was German. Can we agree to differ?