Rating: 
Summary: Even in the mirror of genius we can see ourselves...
Review: All of us have set in a math class, eyeing the geeky social misfit in the corner who never spoke, never asked a question and never missed a answer. The rest of us put the person in a box, called them "genius," a bit jealous and yet highly relieved that we are not part of the same world.In this world we often use the word "genius" to isolate those whose hard-earned gifts threaten our own indolence. By ostracizing them we don't have to face the possibility that they perhaps work harder than we do. We pacify ourselves with the assumption that their insights are obtained through a kind of osmosis, requiring no effort. It helps that their mental capacity often seems nature's way of compensating for their physical deficiencies. Geeks! we call them dismissively. Imagine what a threat they would be if they were one of the beautiful people... John Nash was one of them. A beautiful genius. A physical specimen who was conscious of his own superiority. Don't be offput by the fear you will run into some alien mathematical theorems here. You'll find none of them. What you will find is an unflinching look at the fine line which exists between normalcy and genius and between genius and madness. The world-at-large is filled with individuals who seek their identity as a part of the whole. For the genius, he or she is torn between the sublimnal need to be a part of things and the conscious need to separate and define themselves from the world. Inevitably, under this kind of stress, something often gives. It gave in John Nash. And then returned. Read this. It is elegantly written by Sylvia Nasar. You needn't be a math genius to "get it," you need only be open to an experience of otherness. You will see your feelings for John Nash range from fascination to abhorrance to empathy to a thrilling exaltation in his final redemption. You may even see a part of yourself in the passing. You will be challenged. Read this. Read this. Read this...
Rating:
Summary: Even in the mirror of genius we can see ourselves...
Review: All of us have set in a math class, eyeing the geeky social misfit in the corner who never spoke, never asked a question and never missed an answer. The rest of us put the person in a box and called them "genius," a bit jealous and yet highly relieved that we are not part of the same world. In this world we often use the word "genius" to isolate those whose hard-earned gifts threaten our own indolence. By ostracizing them we don't have to face the possibility that they perhaps work harder than we do. We pacify ourselves with the assumption that their insights are obtained through a kind of osmosis, requiring no effort. It helps that their mental capacity often seems nature's way of compensating for their physical deficiencies. Geeks! we call them dismissively. Imagine what a threat they would be if they were one of the beautiful people... John Nash was one of them. A beautiful genius. A physical specimen who was conscious of his own superiority. Don't be offput by the fear you will run into some alien mathematical theorems here. You'll find none of them. What you will find is an unflinching look at the fine line which exists between normalcy and genius and between genius and madness. The world-at-large is filled with individuals who seek their identity as a part of the whole. For the genius, he or she is torn between the subliminal need to be a part of things and the conscious need to separate and define themselves from the world. Inevitably, under this kind of stress, something often gives. It gave in John Nash. And then returned. Read this. It is elegantly written by Sylvia Nasar. You needn't be a math genius to "get it," you need only be open to an experience of Otherness. You will see your feelings for John Nash range from fascination to abhorrance to empathy to a thrilling exaltation in his final redemption. You may even see a part of yourself in the passing. You will be challenged. Read this. Read this. Read this...
Rating:
Summary: a mathematical mind
Review: I generally hate biographies. They are usually heavily loaded with details of no significance while lacking in a larger
meaning, plus most of their subjects wind up dead, thus defeating the purpose of biography (to make living seem
significant) and I wind up depressed by the whole exercise -- life always seems so pointless after reading a biography. I
make two exceptions to this: Boswell's Life of Johnson and this biography (obviously, I don't seek this kind of literary
genre so I realize I may have overlooked a few good ones). This book is less a biography in the usual sense than an
exploration of a human being with a special talent/obsession -- mathematics. Reading this book made me realize that
mathematics is really a branch of art and depends on living on the edge (close to insanity) so as to fish insight from the
chaos just on the other side of rationality. Creativity without danger is worthless. John Forbes Nash was clearly not a "people" person although there is something appealing about him despite his
arrogance, ambition and vanity -- he is a truth teller, and while we all pretend to admire truth tellers, we always prefer
those who don't go near that cold inhospitable country. That he went mad seemed almost inevitable given the extent of his
ambition and hubris -- he wanted to fish out the biggest of mathematical fish and when he realized that his incapacity for
study and overestimation of his own talent and inspiration meant that his fish had already been landed by other
mathematicians and/or found to be illusory, he chose the lesser of two evils -- insanity. Anything but to become just
another mediocrity. He plunged into numerology (became a kind of numerical visionary) leaving strange little
numerological messages all over Fine Hall which he haunted like a prescient ghost. In his public life, he became an actor
in his own paranoid delusion, traveling here and there, trying to obtain citizenship in one country while forfeiting it in
another, an ad hoc peace broker. Like most paranoiacs, his delusions were solipsistic yet formulaic, following his political
inclinations. At Princeton, people who came across these little bursts of enigmatic enlightenment left on the walls and
blackboards felt moved to write them down. He lived like this for some 30 years, and then for some reason known only
to himself (he explains it as having realized that he could rein in his paranoiac ideation by simply recognizing when he was
beginning to go down that road and turning his thoughts elsewhere). This realization, by the way, puts him way up there in
my estimation. He learned to control his own mind, to make his return to sanity a triumph rather than a sad defeat. He
recognized where the danger lay and learned to avoid it when he wanted to. When he returned to the flatland of reason,
he never turned against his mad self. In fact, he said that his mathematical inspiration came from the same place as his
so-called delusional thinking. (Here's an idea: what if paranoid delusions are not really insane; they only seem so because
each person with these ideas couches them in a personal way, dresses them eccentrically according to whim, and we are
fooled by how silly they look rather than by how consistent they are from one so-called paranoid individual to the next --
maybe there is something out there taking over our minds. Maybe that's why our minds are so limited and getting more so
all the time. We haven't always been this stupid). His winning the Nobel Prize at this late stage was also a proof of his
great personal power. The Nobel Prize committee had deep reservations about the public relations danger of giving a prize to a man who had been publicly insane for 30 years. He won it also not for mathematics but in economics (a hotly debated topic -- many considered economics as a discipline unworthy of a Nobel Prize). The portion of the book about the Nobel Prize is just great. We get a good look at how this system works, how it keeps its equilibrium in the world of high thought and keeps its credibility by not making too many odd/wrong choices. I also liked the speech he gave when accepting it. He had put a great deal of single minded intentionality into winning a great prize and that he won the Nobel seems less a credit to the committee than to this man's indomitable will. At the same time, he had
lived past the sheer need for fame and he received it merely as a token to his young self (for his young self's work in
games theory) and was appreciative that it allowed him to obtain a credit card. I like his aside during his Nobel speech when he parenthetically gave an acknowledgment to his insane self -- his alter ego. Other oddly mathematical touches in his life: two sons named John. One was illegitimate by a woman who clung to the
hope that Nash would marry her at some point or at least support her and her offspring. He never did. He married a
beauty (a physicist) instead -- Alicia -- and produced another son named John. This John has been diagnosed paranoid
schizophrenic. He had his father's footsteps to follow. In his meetings with this John, Nash sees himself at that age and
tells John not to indulge in insanity. Nash is a man who lived according to his own lights. His was not a social life, yet it is
instructive and it gives hope to people who refuse to conform to the social model. This great biography makes this clear. (...)
Rating:
Summary: What a story
Review: The study of genius is pretty revealing. Often times the genius goes unappreciated during her / his life and is discovered after their passing. This story touches on a genius whose trek through life was amazing...hitting highs and lows and highs once again. If you like technology then read this book about wetware...a brilliant mind that hangs on by its fingertips to maintain its sanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Unhinged Mind
Review: A very comprehensive biography takes us on a journey from a small West Virginia town where Nash was born to his current state of tentatively sane semi-retirement that he shares with his ex-wife Alicia. This is a biography of one of the most insightful American mathematicians. Nash gave brilliant intuitive and relevant ideas their precise mathematical formulations. The best known of these is Nash Equilibrium. In non-cooperative games (competition only, no coalitions allowed) with perfect information (all possibilities are in principle knowable, even if not in practice known to all competitors) there exists the best strategy leading to a predetermined outcome. This is why games such as chess and checkers are in principle solvable--the outcome is determined even before any moves are made. The reason these games remain interesting (at least at the time of the writing) is because players do not know the most rational strategy and thus make "mistakes," leading to outcomes that are for practical purposes not exactly predictable. Like many artistic, scientific, and political geniuses, Nash came from a small town and a family that had to struggle finanically. Yet he adopted an aloof and superior approach toward the people he met as a student and later as a mathematician. He was frequently arrogant, aggressive, and inappropriately sarcastic. Morality seemed to him a thinly veiled hypocricy. In this light it is not surprising that Nash admired Nietzsche. Nash behaved rudely and even cruelly toward those who loved him, including his mistress Eleanor (who seems to me to have been his common law wife), his devoted wife Alicia, and both of his sons. I am amazed that after Nash fell desperately ill, many of his colleagues, members of the U.S. government, and his wife remained so loyal, helpful, and concerned. Nash seems to have recovered from paranoid schizophrenia by the early 1990s and was awarded Nobel Prize in economics. This may have been well deserved, because much of the field of economics has been recast in the language of game theory (cooperative and non-cooperative), and Nash was a key contributor whom no one could ignore, especially after the Nobel Committee decided to focus only on non-cooperative games for its 1994 Prize. One may find it challenging to feel very sympathetic towards Nash because of his arrogance, unbridled sarcasm, insensitive put-downs, and downright cruelty towards those who cared about him. Many have noted that during his illness Nash was a better person, even if he could not exercise his mathematical faculties much of the time. After his remission, Nash partly reverted to his old ways, speaking cruelly to his elder son John Stier who tried to reestablish the relationship, and occasionally hurting Alicia with his stupid verbal behavior. Given Nash's personality, it is not surprising that he made the great discovery of the so-called equilibrium that bears his name. Nash abolished players--their emotions, their preferences, their entire psychology, all gone! Only the game remains. Games have solutions, people who play them do not count in arriving at these solutions. The man who was a mathematical genius and who lacked empathy and compassion was fortuitously positioned to arrive at that important formulation. The book is not just interesting, but sometimes gripping. The only minor flaw is that occasionally characters are introduced into the narrative out of the blue, followed by a strangely detailed description of theier appearance and behavior, even when it is not obvious why such a detailed description is necessary. This makes the book a bit choppy. But overall this is an enjoyable, provocative, and educational read. I recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Mind is more like it! (MBTI - INTP)
Review: I was given this book as a birthday gift. Married to a mathematician, and having a personal love for the field of economics, this book was fascinating simply from the interlacing of these fields of study (although it's light in economics). It made a GREAT conversation piece between my husband and I as each of us read it. But the story it's self is unimaginable. Truth in this case, really is stranger than fiction. John Nash took his friends and family along with him through his personal hell. It seems that few who knew him (even those victimized by him) were able to let go while he drifted into the depth of his mental illness. Nasar has done an amazing job of capturing the mathematics, and as math built the very fabric of this story it wouldn't have much impact without it. The math gets a little deep for a lay person, but if you can find a resource (or use the internet) it's worth any additional time to grasp the principles as it is being discussed. If you have any interest in the MBTI this story has some extra meat to it. John Nash must be an INTP married to an ENTP. It was the best book I've read in several years (and I've read some good ones!).
Rating:
Summary: A sad story
Review: I was torn between two emotions - sadness for Nash and his family and joy in the human friendships and love that supported him through all his difficult years. It's a tribute to the mathematical community that there were so many individuals who cared and assisted him however they found possible. As for the details of the book, it's well written, articulate and full of historical anecdotes. Makes for a very pleasant read.
Rating:
Summary: Very well researched
Review: A Beautiful Mind is one of the most researched biographies I have read in years. Ms. Nasar's background history & work experience in math/economics speaks for itself. As a Psych Nursing Instructor, I was simply amazed & most impressed with her depth, breath & understanding of Schizophrenia. She left no stone unturned when writing this book. I enjoyed it right from the first sentence to the last. She did her homework well when sitting down to write such a well written biography.
Rating:
Summary: Great book Very Insightful
Review: Just a short review, I thought this book was very well researched and deserves a serious consideration. It taught me alot about mental illness, genius and how the two together affected Nash. I did'nt particuarly care for Nash, but ending up hoping the best for him. And I wondered a bit more about the life of the older son and how he was affected by his highly unusual father. I loved how science and facts about 'game theory' were highlighted. When I finished reading this book, I felt as if I had learned alot of new things. Thanks so much.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating Book
Review: I read this book with great interest as I remembered my late husband talking about the genius and insanity of John Nash. My husband got his degree in mathematics, physics and chemistry from Univ. of Michigan about the same time as John Nash got his and he traveled in the same circles as Nash. He, like Nash, suffered from paranoid schizonphrenia and had a difficult life. I saw many, many parallels in their life histories and the insane genuises of the two men. I would love to know what has happened to Nash since the book was written. I thought the book was well written and very interesting. Being a layperson in the field of mathematics--her intensive research could put me off at times but I stuck with this part of it. I admire her for even tackling it and it does add to the whole picture of the John Forbes Nash so I felt it was needed. If you are interested in this field--go for it! It is a definite good read.
| 
