Currently i am reading a book called “When we Cease to Understand The World, by Benjamin Labatut. The book is a cross between fiction and non-fiction and focuses on the history of physics and math, and the relationships between the theorist/mathematics, their life, and their work. The current section i am on is about a matmentacian named Grothendieck, who is known for revolutionising geometry and many other fields of math. This excerpt if from page 72 and touches on Grothendieck’s work ethic:
“He was capable of sleeping at will, as many hours as he needed then dedicating the whole of his energy to his work. He could begin working on an idea in the morning and not move from his desk until dawn the next day, squinting under the light of the old kerosene lamp.”
I find it interesting how this implies that to be a genius, to have radical and new ideas, you have to have complete control over your body, (sleeping at will), and that you must dedicate every single waking second to your profession. It seems that to go to the next level of ideas, of revolutionary thoughts, you must have complete control over your body, and let your profession have complete control over you. It really makes me appreciate those who really sacrificed their lives to change ideas for the future generations.