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I think the parent's point (and perhaps the article author's point) is that he didn't spend his entire time there. He spent long enough, but not too long before he connected with the existing body of work, but now with a way to bring his own creativity into it.

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That's a good thing to note. The same can be said of Newton, Wiles and Perelman.

Grothendieck's later years or more extreme isolation were less productive, same with Perelman, so maybe there's some balance that needs to be struck. Although age is a confound with these two cases.

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