[HN Gopher] Frank Ramsey: A genius by all tests for genius (2020)
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Frank Ramsey: A genius by all tests for genius (2020)
Author : EndXA
Score : 47 points
Date : 2024-05-13 12:51 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hnn.us)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hnn.us)
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| The irony of a "genius by all tests" ending his life by swimming
| in a polluted river is tragic, and human.
| JackMorgan wrote:
| Only if being a genius means you can never have a lapse of
| judgement.
|
| As a counterpoint, the smartest people I know do all kinds of
| risky behaviors. If anything one might call it a coping
| mechanism.
| cbsmith wrote:
| > Only if being a genius means you can never have a lapse of
| judgement. > > As a counterpoint, the smartest people I know
| do all kinds of risky behaviors. If anything one might call
| it a coping mechanism.
|
| Do we know that it was a lapse in judgement? I'm thinking
| that's outcome bias. It's speculated that it was the cause of
| death, but we don't know that. If it was a known risky
| behaviour, you'd have thought it would have been identified
| by doctors (it was well known that he swam in the river a
| lot) and at least these days it's not considered risky
| behaviour. Either way, a lapse in judgement would imply that
| the risks outweighed the rewards (and the value of the
| rewards tends to be personal/contextual).
| kleiba wrote:
| _> Although Ramsey was employed by Cambridge as a mathematician,
| he only published eight pages of pure mathematics. But those
| eight pages yielded impressive results._
|
| Be that as it may, but with just eight papers to your name, you'd
| be gone out of any position in today's academia faster than you
| can say "key performance indicator".
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| Eight _pages_.
| kleiba wrote:
| Oh, wow, I missed that.
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| > _those eight pages yielded impressive results._
|
| I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the most wild
| understatement I've read all year. Or were they going for
| deadpan humor?
|
| Ramsey's responsible for the famous theory that bears his
| name. The core concept of Ramsey Theory is this: Regardless
| of how extensive and complex a system _S_ is, and no matter
| how large a positive integer _n_ is, it is possible to find a
| sufficiently large super system _Q_ that includes S. In such
| a way, no matter how _Q_ is colored using _n_ colors, _Q_
| will always contain a monochromatic copy of _S_.
|
| So Ramsey Theory explores the mathematics of coloring, but it
| has exerted tremendous influence on 20th century mathematics
| more generally -- it works to elucidate a lot of notions
| surrounding infinite and finite sets. In fact, it's clearly
| among the most influential 20th century mathematical
| theories; Paul Erdos' storied career owed an awful lot to
| Ramsey, and Ramsey theory also inspired Ramsey's friend
| Ludwig Wittgenstein's work in analytic philosophy.
| tarentel wrote:
| I was curious about this as well. Apparently he died when he
| was 26. By today's standards most people would still be working
| on their PhD at that age.
| QuesnayJr wrote:
| Didn't Yitang Zhang end up a full professor at UC Santa Barbara
| on the basis of a single paper?
| pfdietz wrote:
| The key indicator was having a branch of mathematics named
| after you.
| karaterobot wrote:
| > In 1999, Donald Davidson, a leading philosopher of the
| twentieth century, coined the term 'the Ramsey Effect': the
| phenomenon of discovering that an exciting and apparently
| original philosophical discovery already has been presented, and
| presented more elegantly, by Frank Ramsey.
|
| Kind of a nice legacy I guess, considering the short career.
| dang wrote:
| Discussed at the time (of the article):
|
| _Frank Ramsey: A Genius by All Tests for Genius_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22321970 - Feb 2020 (23
| comments)
|
| Also:
|
| _Frank Ramsey: A more human philosophy_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24320717 - Aug 2020 (2
| comments)
|
| _Frank Ramsey - The Man Who Thought Too Fast_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011233 - April 2020 (122
| comments)
| adolph wrote:
| _He also would have loathed those who used his results to argue
| that the best economy is one generated by the decisions of
| individuals, with minimal government intrusion. He was a
| socialist who favored government intervention to help the
| disadvantaged in society._
|
| The genius of this viewpoint brings to mind: "The
| curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little
| they really know about what they imagine the can design."
| -- F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism
| (Volume 1)
| wslh wrote:
| Socialism is interpreted differently depending who and where
| you ask. Do you mean social democracy? Like, for example,
| Germany.
| astrange wrote:
| > He also would have loathed those who used his results to
| argue that the best economy is one generated by the decisions
| of individuals, with minimal government intrusion. He was a
| socialist who favored government intervention to help the
| disadvantaged in society.
|
| What's notable about these two sentences is the second one is
| being presented as a disagreement with the first one, even
| though they don't disagree. Redistribution has nothing to do
| necessarily with state planning of the economy, and is mainly
| to support people who don't participate in it (i.e. children
| and the elderly).
| jujube3 wrote:
| Indeed, Frank Ramsey was a member of the Cambridge Apostles,
| which included many literal Soviet spies.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Apostles
|
| Being a great mathematician doesn't always mean you make good
| decisions.
| jaco6 wrote:
| Can anyone identify and enumerate the "tests for genius" that
| Ramsey passed?
|
| Edit: Found them. They are Samuelson's own criteria:
|
| 1. Test of Time: Samuelson suggested that the work of a genius
| economist should stand the test of time, remaining relevant and
| influential long after its initial publication.
|
| 2. Transcendence of Paradigms: Genius economists should be able
| to transcend prevailing paradigms and make significant
| contributions that reshape the field of economics.
|
| 3. Originality and Creativity: Samuelson emphasized the
| importance of originality and creativity in the work of genius
| economists, highlighting their ability to generate novel ideas
| and insights.
|
| 4. Broad Influence: Genius economists should have a broad
| influence beyond their own specialized areas of research,
| impacting the broader discipline of economics.
|
| 5. Impact on Policy: Samuelson suggested that the work of genius
| economists should have practical implications and influence
| policy-making decisions.
|
| 6. Pedagogical Impact: Genius economists should also have a
| significant impact on economic education, shaping the way
| economics is taught and understood by future generations of
| students.
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