I think to a point, a lot of us want to believe that Perelman is truly noble and and dedicated to the purity of mathematics. It would serve as a great fable of the modern age. A man challenging the tripe and political aspects of society we have created.
If you've read "Perfect Rigor", the book by Masha Gessen, it shows as far as I can tell that some of that is true. He doesn't believe in profiting from mathematics. At the same time, some of the stories make you wonder what he wants from others:
When he was 17 he taught at a summer math camp for gifted math kids like himself, he would give 15 year-olds problems that were 2x the normal even for them without consideration to their actual skills and then attempt to deprive them of lunch if they couldn't finish half of it.
"A year later, when [the author] asked Rukshin [Perelman's childhood mentor] to get a copy of Morgan and Tian's new book to Perelman, Rukshin demurred; the last time he had tried to pass on a gift from a foreign admirer, he said, Perelman had lobbed the gift-a classical-music CD-at Rukshin's head."
Nevertheless, his brilliance at math is undeniable. I just don't think his reasoning is particularly honorable from what I've read of it.
Note: I realize the excerpts might be a bit tangential, but I thought it was of some value to mention some of his odd behavior.
If you've read "Perfect Rigor", the book by Masha Gessen, it shows as far as I can tell that some of that is true. He doesn't believe in profiting from mathematics. At the same time, some of the stories make you wonder what he wants from others:
When he was 17 he taught at a summer math camp for gifted math kids like himself, he would give 15 year-olds problems that were 2x the normal even for them without consideration to their actual skills and then attempt to deprive them of lunch if they couldn't finish half of it.
"A year later, when [the author] asked Rukshin [Perelman's childhood mentor] to get a copy of Morgan and Tian's new book to Perelman, Rukshin demurred; the last time he had tried to pass on a gift from a foreign admirer, he said, Perelman had lobbed the gift-a classical-music CD-at Rukshin's head."
Nevertheless, his brilliance at math is undeniable. I just don't think his reasoning is particularly honorable from what I've read of it.
Note: I realize the excerpts might be a bit tangential, but I thought it was of some value to mention some of his odd behavior.