Most of us know this brilliant mind due to a fabulous movie in which Russel Crowe has played its character. John F. Nash Jr, a most gifted mathematician who has envisioned a very important theory in contemporary economics, died on Saturday in a car crash together with his wife, Ana. Who would have thought that such a fabulous personality will appear in the news under such tragic circumstances? John Nash and wife killed in car crash doesn’t sound that dignified for the world’s most beautiful minds.
Anyhow, most of the times death doesn’t sound dignified, and we all need to face it at some point in our lives. John Nash has left behind a priceless legacy and a very vivid example on how life can be lived, in spite of the challenges it puts on the table.
“A beautiful mind” is the title of an autobiographical book released by one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and it describes all the combined struggles with a mental illness he has suffered from. Apart from the suffering, John Nash has lived a fabulous love story, another vivid example of how life and love can be felt, perceived and kept till the end.
The death of John Nash together with his wife was a natural and actually most dignified end to a unique love story.
The Nobel-prize winner and Princeton University scholar with his wife on his side were killed when a taxi carrying them hit a guardrail on the New Jersey Turnpike, ejecting and killing them both. He was 86 and she was 82.
John Nash was a leader of a generation. Starting with the 1940 era, when the Cold War and growing nuclear arms race between the US and Soviet Union were set to highlight best negotiation strategies, Nash’s ideas came to light, revolutionized mathematics, economics and strategic thinking and brought brilliant ideas to the table. Economists all over the world followed his examples and applied the ideas further to industrial organization and trade negotiations.
Every piece of brilliance comes with a price and John Nash didn’t escape this cruel life equilibrium. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, which shadowed his career and cast shadows on his marriage. But in spite of all difficulties, Nash and his wife remained together till the end and Nash has met worldwide success with all his revolutionary theories.
Nash Equilibrium is a most compelling piece of brilliant mathematics and it offers precious insights on how economics, mathematics, strategies and life are all the same, when envisioned together with most consideration and clarity.
Image Source: wsj.com
