Timeline for What are some noteworthy "mic-drop" moments in math?
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10 events
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| Jan 4, 2022 at 18:01 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | The mathforum link is dead. See Greg Kuperberg's Nov 19, 2002 sci.math.research post Re: proof of Geometrization/Poincare Conjecture? which has been archived by archive.org Kuperberg says of the 1st preprint, "This is a serious paper with some very interesting results, but the author does NOT claim to prove the Poincare conjecture. When he says a "sketch", he clearly explains in the last section that he doesn't know how to fill in the sketch." | |
| Mar 17, 2019 at 16:16 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | I think Perelman is a good example, but for a slightly different reason: When his first preprint came out, it wasn't even clear that he was claiming that he had proved the Poincare conjecture. See for example mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=1692699 | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 23:47 | comment | added | Samantha Y | @ycor I apologize :( this entire thread strikes me as unproductive, but that doesn't excuse my taking offense at you, especially as we seem to be in agreement. That is (if I may say so), perpetuating mythologizing the Perelman story, or characterising it as a 'mic drop' will only drive a wedge between mathematicians and the general public, by portraying us as either prize-driven or "odd-balls", and even if somewhere between these two, as drama obsessed gossips. After all, (and this is a very general comment) don't we want everyone to be mathematician? Let them see we're human. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 19:38 | comment | added | YCor | @SamanthaY this was a comment to the answer, not to your comment. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 18:36 | comment | added | Samantha Y | @zibadawatimmy Yes, but Perelman refused to be owned by the public, which is quite a different thing than wanting privacy/anonymity. To that end, I feel he succeeded. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 14:31 | comment | added | zibadawa timmy | @SamanthaY Ironically, I think he's succumbed to the Streisand Effect by doing that. A significant fraction of my awareness of Perelman and the results he's credited with is a result of his refusals to be recognized. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 11:42 | comment | added | YCor | The announcement was posting on arxiv (with no buzzword). Refusing prizes occurred several years later hence is not part of the announcement. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 2:40 | comment | added | Samantha Y | Let us not mince words: " 'I'm not interested in money or fame,' he is quoted to have said at the time. 'I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful; that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me.' " | |
| S Mar 11, 2019 at 1:08 | history | answered | Kimball | CC BY-SA 4.0 | |
| S Mar 11, 2019 at 1:08 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Kimball |