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David Mumford, quoted in Allyn Jackson, "Comme Appelé du Néant— As If Summoned from the Void: The Life of Alexandre Grothendieck" (part 2 of 2) (November 2004), Notices of the American Mathematical Society (quote from p. 1197)
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He really never worked on examples, I only understand things through examples and then gradually make them more abstract. I don’t think it helped Grothendieck in the least to look at an example. He really got control of the situation by thinking of it in absolutely the most abstract possible way. It’s just very strange. That’s the way his mind worked.

— David Mumford

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "He really never worked on examples, I only understand things through examples and then gradually make them more abstract. I don’t think it helped Grothendieck in the least to look at an example. He really got control of the situation by thinking of it in absolutely the most abstract possible way. It’s just very strange. That’s the way his mind worked." in the context of "David Mumford, quoted in Allyn Jackson, "Comme Appelé du Néant— As If Summoned from the Void: The Life of Alexandre Grothendieck" (part 2 of 2) (November 2004), Notices of the American Mathematical Society (quote from p. 1197)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Alexander Grothendieck" (Quotes about Grothendieck) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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Alexander Grothendieck

About Alexander Grothendieck

Alexander Grothendieck (28 March 1928 – 13 November 2014) was a German-born French mathematician who became the leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. His research extended the scope of the field and added elements of commutative algebra, homological algebra, sheaf theory and category theory to its foundations, while his so-called "relative" perspective led to revolutionary advances in many areas of pure mathematics.