Many mathematicians are rather childlike, unworldly in some sense, but Grothendieck more than most. He just seemed like an innocent—not very sophisticated, no pretense, no sham. He thought very clearly and explained things very patiently, without any sense of superiority. He wasn’t contaminated by civilization or power or one-up-manship.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Many mathematicians are rather childlike, unworldly in some sense, but Grothendieck more than most. He just seemed like an innocent—not very sophisticated, no pretense, no sham. He thought very clearly and explained things very patiently, without any sense of superiority. He wasn’t contaminated by civilization or power or one-up-manship." in the context of "John Tate, quoted in Allyn Jackson, "Comme Appelé du Néant— As If Summoned from the Void: The Life of Alexandre Grothendieck" (part 1 of 2) (October 2004), Notices of the American Mathematical Society (quote from p. 1047)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.