John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician

I took Math 217 (Honors Linear Algebra) [1] with John Conway back in undergrad. Here are some anecdotes.

He announced that the midterm would be open notes. We study accordingly. We get to the midterm, and he is in California for a conference. A grad student is proctoring. We tell him that that the professor told us that it would be open notes. The grad student chuckles, says no way, the students outraged, and the exam proceeds closed notes. I guess he forgot to tell his grad student!

My friend comes to the exam late, didn't hear about the closed notes update, takes the exam open notes (how did his neighbor not notice?), turns himself into Conway later. The class average was something like 32 points out of 95.

After the midterm results, he was dismayed that he "had clearly done a poor job teaching us," and proceeded to spend the next 3 lectures going over the first 6 weeks of the course at a furious pace.

A classmate had met Conway back at a summer math camp during High School. John Conway had a real bicycle around his neck. He proclaimed that in the future if she sees a John Conway without a bicycle around his neck, that he is not the real John Conway! (much to our dismay he never came to class with a bicycle around his neck. I think he did, however, come to class with a metal cloths hanger around his neck. I think he did a trick involving one or more of these that day)

If students seemed a bit sleepy during lecture, he would routinely start to suddenly lecture at the top of his lungs. I definitely remember jumping up in my seat many times because of this. In one occasion, he opted to take off his shoe and throw it as hard as he could at the window for similar effect.

He would lecture and write on the blackboard so fast that we would copy the blackboard furiously for 90 minutes. If I started 2 blackboards behind (there were 6 boards), I would usually not have caught up by the end of lecture.

[1] https://www.math.princeton.edu/undergraduate/course/mat217

One time when I was wheeling my unicycle down the street this manic with a beard and sandals came after me and started asking some really odd questions. Turned out it was Conway and he'd recognised me from the maths common room, so figured I might be able to answer his questions. Turns out I did.

Subsequently I was one of very few people he'd bother playing backgammon with because we'd both play stupidly fast, and switch between extreme style of play, almost at random. I'd usually lose, but he stayed and played because he found it interesting. He's very like a cat, in that he'll play with something for a time, then completely lose interest and walk away without a word.

Fascinating, and humbling, to spend time with someone just so far out of my league.

Reposting after a prod from the mods because there is so much fascinating stuff e.g. this quote from James Propp, professor of mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell:

“Conway is the rare sort of mathematician whose ability to connect his pet mathematical interests makes one wonder if he isn’t, at some level, shaping mathematical reality and not just exploring it. The example of this that I know best is a connection he discovered between sphere packing and games. These were two separate areas of study that Conway had arrived at by two different paths. So there’s no reason for them to be linked. But somehow, through the force of his personality, and the intensity of his passion, he bent the mathematical universe to his will.”

Numberphile, an awesome youtube channel on its own, has done some great interviews with John Conway that are definitely worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4 He really comes across as a genuinely great guy.

> He’s invented many peculiar algorithms—for counting stairs while you climb without actually counting, and for how best to read through a stack of double-sided loose-leaf pages.

Any ideas about how this is done?

I had the chance to meet him in person during a summer school a few years ago. He's simply awesome. Super fun guy, great to talk to and a great teacher (even though sometimes quite a bit disorganised... I remember him leaving behind some of his stuff when he had to catch the taxi that took him to the airport at 6am or so ;) ).

This is an extract from the new biography of Conway, Genius at Play, which I'd thoroughly recommend if you found this interesting.

The author of the article wrote a recent book on John Conway as well http://www.amazon.com/Genius-At-Play-Curious-Horton/dp/16204...

Wow I don't understand how you can just change your personality in an instant. Maybe he has an easily 're-programmable' brain.

Not related to the article itself - I happened to open Javascript console on the page. Try it yourself - you might find it interesting too : )

I really want to play Phutball, now. I wish there was an android app.

The narrative of this piece is really great -- that the most charismatic mathematician around just up and decided to reinvent himself as a charismatic person. I gained a bunch of weight a couple years ago, and I genuinely feel like a funnier, more gregarious person because of it. It's interesting to think about how much of your personality is really "you".