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Comment by justinjlynn | Hacker News Reader

> It is hard to get our ordinary minds around the achievements of the great Cambridge mathematician, philosopher, and economist, Frank Ramsey.

How is anyone not immediately repelled by this style of writing? Seriously, though.

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I find the whole Genius-fetish quite annoying - people who actually call themselves geniuses tend to be more Tommy Wiseau than Tom Kibble

lol yeah

Its a brain bug - our brain makes a flat copy of everyone we meet. If we can not comprehend/ deduce what he/she does the brain is hardwired to early out - and the person is either (depending on outcome) a idiot, or a genius.

If you want to be percieved by others as genius, this can be easily accomplished. Engage in endavours where you control the outcome, but make a show of beeing percieved as a mumbling fool, doing seemingly nonsense on the way.

Did he call himself a genius?

I think my all reasonable estimates, he was a polymath, maybe not on the level of Kolmogorov or something but it's the fact that he died so young, had such immense influence, and worked in so many fields.

Right or wrong, this is an assertion not a style. Given that according to whoever wrote the Wiki article on Ramsey he was a 'British philosopher, mathematician, and economist who made major contributions to all three fields before his death at the age of 26' most people would have to rely on the judgement of specialists in these fields to appreciate his achievements. So it probably is 'hard' for the rest of us.

To be fair, it's exactly what the title should lead you to expect.

yes! thank you

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