Freeman Dyson – Birds and Frogs (2009)

1. It is very interesting to note that Freeman Dyson considers Von Neumann to be a frog rather than a bird.

Considering Neumann's wide ranging, and prodigious work, I always thought of him as a superman who could survey the entire landscape of mathematics. Dyson does give some persuasive reasons why this may not be true.

2. Dyson reminds me of Isaiah Berlin's THE HEDGEHOG AND THE FOX essay: https://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/crag/files/2016/06/the_hedgeh...

The birds and frogs distinction is interesting, but seems to be a false dichotomy to me. Ideally a researcher is both a bird and a frog. I try to be. And unfortunately many researchers probably aren't either. In my own subfield I can think of many contributions which lack either depth or breadth.

I have yet to see something from Dyson that wasn't worth reading, assuming I had the background to handle it.

Is there a way to view this offline?

EDIT https://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf

Maybe if FD gets a PhD he will be able to understand global warming.

Look, I'm not suggesting we abandon contrarianism as entertainment altogether, amusements are sacred constructs of great power and beauty, but as a system of philosophy, a guiding force to live your life ?

Give me a fucking break.