Re: [HM] So young...

Jeremy Gray (j.j.gray@open.ac.uk)
Wed, 6 Jan 1999 14:57:00 -0000

Dear All
There is a written source for such a story - but can I find it? - No.
The speaker is Pauli, the subject the author (in the book I got this
from) an unnamed young American physicist. The remark: So young, and
already so unknown. It's a paraphrase, apparently, of a line in one
of Johann Strauss's Operas, where the hero is introduced as So young
and already so well-known.
Precise details when my memory works better.
Best wishes
Jeremy

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From: Julio Gonzalez Cabillon[SMTP:jgc@adinet.com.uy]
Sent: 05 January 1999 21:13
To: HISTORIA MATEMATICA
Subject: Re: [HM] So young...

On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Jim Propp <propp@math.mit.edu> wrote:

| I once heard an anecdote about how a certain senior mathematician X,
| on seeing a certain younger mathematician Y walk past, confided in
| colleague Z his candid opinion of Y: "So young, and yet he has already
| accomplished so little."
|
| Who are X, Y, and Z?

I *vaguely* recall a tale of the same family:

A young mathematician _X_ asked an established mathematician _Y_ for a
letter of recommendation. Apparently, _Y_ agreed, and encouraged _X_
to write the covering letter himself, since he would sign it.
"Remember... don't be modest", said _Y_, "you have accomplished too
little to be modest".

Have you ever heard of this anecdote? If so, who are X and Y? ...

--JGC