he rejected both the Fields Medal and the $1M prize:

> be Grigori Perelman
> Russian mathematician
> 16 years old
> go to International Math Olympiad
> score 42/42

> years later…

> there’s a geometry problem called the Poincaré conjecture
> been unsolved since 1904
> generations of mathematicians fail to solve it
> Clay Institute puts a $1M prize on it

> wrestle with the problem for years

> 2002
> casually upload the solution to arXiv
> don’t even care about submitting it to a journal
> mathematicians spend years checking the solution

“fuck
he actually solved it”

> 2006
> offered the Fields Medal
> most prestigious prize in math
> refuse it

> 2010
> offered the $1,000,000 Millennium Prize
> refuse that too

“EVERYBODY UNDERSTOOD THAT IF THE PROOF IS CORRECT THEN NO OTHER RECOGNITION IS NEEDED”