Review of The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) by Jacob Z — 11 Jun 2016

Having retired from four decades of teaching mathematics, I was well aware of this story. Nevertheless, I was deeply moved moved by it on a personal level. With the implementation of the common core in our schools (part of why I chose to retire), we run the risk of repeating the tragedy on a much larger scale.

The character of Bertrand Russell (my favorite genius) warns professor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) that when you have genius (racehorse) like mathematician Ramanujan, you should "let him run." He lacked the formal mathematical training regarding proving his savant-like unconventional methods, and his intuition wasn't perfect.

But his life was cut so short that one can't help but wonder what other insights he could have given us in the meantime, leaving the formal proofs to others. No background in mathematics is required to fully appreciate this human story of drive, personal sacrifice, prejudice, friendship, and changing the world in so many ways.

We also need to remember to provide the opportunity of our future racehorses to run and not be held back by convention in our educational system.