]]>Bohr said to his son, "Remember the name of that little fellow in the back over there? He's the only guy who's not afraid of me, and will say when I've got a crazy idea. So next time when we want to discuss ideas, we're not going to be able to do it with these guys who say everything is yes, yes, Dr. Bohr. Get that guy and we'll talk with him first."
Rota wrote somewhere that when an illustrious mathematician reaches a certain age, he is no longer treated as a person, but as an institution. (I take it he is speaking from direct experience!) Some people have an easier time adapting to that than others.
]]>Of course, I'd be pretty excited if I asked a question about Serre's work and Serre turned up to answer it. And I appreciate that it's wise for MO to keep track of success stories, because maybe in future it's going to have to apply for funding. And the original Green-Tao thing was funny. But... well, here's a story. A friend of mine is at the same institution as a very famous mathematician, who I'll call X. My friend tells me that X has very mixed feelings about his fame, because it means that people are too scared to talk to him. He just wants to interact like an ordinary mathematician, bounce ideas around, have conversations in a relaxed manner, but this doesn't happen because people know who he is and therefore don't act naturally.
From what my friend says, I'm sure that if X were on MO, the last thing he'd want is for people to make a fuss about it. There's zero chance that they wouldn't, which I think is a shame. In X's case, and I'm sure in the case of many other mathematicians of a shy-ish nature, the right thing to do would be to treat him just like anyone else.
]]>Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté. -Margaret Atwood, novelist and poet (b. 1939)
]]>Then we're set =p.
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