{"id":98,"date":"2005-09-12T16:41:11","date_gmt":"2005-09-12T16:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alephnaught.wordpress.com\/2005\/09\/12\/a-beautiful-mind-the-life-of-mathematical-genius-and-nobel-laureate-john-nash\/"},"modified":"2005-09-12T16:41:11","modified_gmt":"2005-09-12T16:41:11","slug":"a-beautiful-mind-the-life-of-mathematical-genius-and-nobel-laureate-john-nash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/2005\/09\/12\/a-beautiful-mind-the-life-of-mathematical-genius-and-nobel-laureate-john-nash\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Mind: the Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A Beautiful Mind: the Life of Mathematical Genius and
\nNobel Laureate John Nash<\/a>
\n<\/font>
Author<\/b><\/font>:
\nSylvia
\nNasar<\/font>
Paperback<\/b><\/font>:
\n464
\npages<\/font>
Publisher<\/b><\/font>:
\nSimon & Schuster (December 4,
\n2001)<\/font>
Language<\/b><\/font>:
\nEnglish<\/font>
ISBN<\/b><\/font>:
\n0743224574<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

When I saw the movie, I cried. It was so painful
\nto see such a bright person’s mind become clouded, ensnared with schizophrenia
\nin the prime of his career. I was a mathematician by scholastic training, and I
\ncould see how someone would start seeing patterns in things that were actually
\npatternless. Loosing the ability to discern what’s real from the fake takes so
\nmuch away from ourselves. Nash wrote a seminal paper applying game theory to
\neconomics, along with some other important mathematical proofs. But, he became
\nschizophrenic, which, for a while, cost him his family and his job, along with
\nanything like a normal life. He had two children, one of whom inherited his
\nillness. Eventually, he says that he decided that what he was experiencing
\nwasn’t real and wasn’t pleasant, and so he started telling himself which things
\nwere real and which not; this is how he says he clawed his way back to sanity,
\nin time to collect a Nobel prize in
\nEconomics.<\/font><\/p>\n

Its obvious Nasar cares
\ndeeply about this story. She has done painstaking research (as evidenced by the
\nnumber of notes at the rear of the volume). She also helped publish Nash’s
\npapers (I saw that book at Borders this last weekend – guess I’ll have to slog
\nthrough some game theory at some point – haven’t done that in at least 20
\nyears).<\/font><\/p>\n

Its a sad story but one that
\nshould be read by anyone interested in the ultimate strength of the
\nmind.<\/font><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\nTranslate<\/span><\/a>\"\"\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Beautiful Mind: the Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash Author: Sylvia NasarPaperback: 464 pagesPublisher: Simon & Schuster (December 4, 2001)Language: EnglishISBN: 0743224574 Translate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t