Dedication to Mathematics

There are very few people who can truly say that they dedicated their lives to their work. Paul Erdos was one example of a person who dedicated their entire life to his career as a mathematician. During his life, he wrote around 1,525 articles and published several other articles. Most notable example that I remember from the book "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman is that Paul would be sitting in a resturant and use the napkins to draw out his ideas and solutions to mathematical problems. Paul doesn't seem to ever stop thinking about mathematics which speaks to his dedication to the subject.

Paul Erdos was considered a "Problem Solver" More than a "Theory Developer". Often in mathematics, Problem Solvers are often less appreciated than Theory Developers. More in-depth discussion about the two styles is included in the Paper by Timothy Gowers. His interest were to solve problems and find solutions that were elegant and eloquent (as far as the mathematics goes)

Living out of a Briefcase

Perhaps the most humorous and interesting fact about Paul was that he kept all his belongings in a briefcase. Here's a man that had no interest in worldly possessions, the only thing he loved was numbers. Paul's humor is also something I found very interesting. He called children "epsilons" after the mathematical term for a very small number. He also used to sign his name in a very interesting fashion:

• Firstly, "Paul Erdos P.G.O.M" (Poor Great Old Man)
• At age 60 he signed "L.D." (Living Dead).
• At 65, "A.D.", (Archaeological Discovery)
• At 70 he again signed "L.D" (legally Dead)
• Finally at 75, "C.D." (Counts Dead)

I absolutely love this quote from Paul. It makes me crack up and I extend it to my time as a developer as well:

A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.