John Nash is one of the greatest minds today. He was only 21 when he wrote his 27-page outline of the "Nash Equilibrium". The impact of this theory was amazing. John Nash applied to Princeton university in 1948 with a one sentence recommendation, "This man is genius." And that was all it took. It was here Nash was first introduced to the theory of games. Nash soon turned the theory inside out and took it too an entirely new level. That was not his only contribution, he was also a mathematical genius. As an undergraduate he proved Brouwer's fixed point theorem and broke one of Riemann's most perplexing mathematical conundrums. in 1958 an unfortunate turn of events hits Nash. He is struck with a case of paranoid schizophrenia.
Nash's career was blown out of the water in 1958 when he was struck by paranoid schizophrenia. The disease hit him so hard he was nearly incapacitated. In 1959, his lost his job at M.I.T. and did nothing else for the next two decades. He later ended up back on the Princeton campus and became known as "the Phanton of Fine Hall". Slowly, the disease began to exvaporate in the early 1970's and Nash returned little by little to his mathematical works. Nash continued to work and received the Nobel Prize in 1994, sharing it with John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten. He considered the work "his most trivial" accomplishment.
I believe that schizophrenia is a very harmful disease, that can and will ruin someones life. Nash was very lucky to have eventually gotten over it, even though it took more than 2 decades. It almost ruined his entire career, and took 2 decades of his life away from him. What interests me is that he did not take his madness as madness, he took it as a higher level of thinking. He mentioned that it felt as if he was breathing air too rare for mortals, and that by him no longer having the disorder, he could not make original discoveries. John Nash was an ingeous man.
Link 1 http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:John_f_nash_20061102_3.jpg
Nash's career was blown out of the water in 1958 when he was struck by paranoid schizophrenia. The disease hit him so hard he was nearly incapacitated. In 1959, his lost his job at M.I.T. and did nothing else for the next two decades. He later ended up back on the Princeton campus and became known as "the Phanton of Fine Hall". Slowly, the disease began to exvaporate in the early 1970's and Nash returned little by little to his mathematical works. Nash continued to work and received the Nobel Prize in 1994, sharing it with John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten. He considered the work "his most trivial" accomplishment.
I believe that schizophrenia is a very harmful disease, that can and will ruin someones life. Nash was very lucky to have eventually gotten over it, even though it took more than 2 decades. It almost ruined his entire career, and took 2 decades of his life away from him. What interests me is that he did not take his madness as madness, he took it as a higher level of thinking. He mentioned that it felt as if he was breathing air too rare for mortals, and that by him no longer having the disorder, he could not make original discoveries. John Nash was an ingeous man.
Link 1 http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:John_f_nash_20061102_3.jpg
5 comments:
Great post. You did a good job explaining how paranoid schizophrenia affected John Nash, but you did not really explain what schizophrenia is. 95/100
Good job on fulfilling all the requirements, especially with the background info and the effects of the disorder on his life. I agree with Zach that you could have explained further what schizophrenia is and does to the body. But great job :) A+ 100
Nice explanation on John Nash. You gave great detail information on him. However, like Zach and Lily, I think it would be better if you explain a bit more about schizophrenia and how he managed to overcome this problem. But other than that, it was pretty good.
I think it is really amazing that John Nash is able to overcome it. Schizophrenia is not something that should be taken lightly. But his method to overcome it is very interesting. I like how you give details to that.
I'm sure John Nash would agree with the statement "mind over matter." Good post!
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