The genius of Edward Witten | Cumrun Vafa and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Cumrun Vafa is a theoretical physicist at Harvard.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[Abelltd]

Rogan's podcast yesterday with Eric Weinstein brought me here lol. Was the first I'd heard of Mr. Witten. Awesome!

[stevem]

"I dual-majored in math and physics at MIT"
"I got my Ph.D in physics from Princeton working with Ed Witten"
"By the time I got to Harvard..." Dude, stop. You're absoultely CRUSHING it

[edwardjones]

This is a brilliant explanation of the difference between rigour and physical intuition that so many physicists talk about

[annaclarafenyo]

While Vafa is a fantastic physicist, I think it's ironic that one of the things that Vafa gets most credit for, topological string theory, is actually Witten's idea. Vafa is responsible for Mirror Symmetry, for F theory, for various brane constructions, he's also a great physicist of the top rank, but Topological String Theory screams Ed Witten so much, just in the mathematical construction, it's like he signed it with his name by creating it, even though I always heard it attributed to Vafa. The reason it's Witten is not just that he wrote the first paper, it's also the twisted supersymmetry construction, turning it into a BRST charge, which is the construction Witten milked to get Donaldson invariants, topological field theories and knot invariants, and also Topological Strings, it's just what Witten did in that era of the late 80s.

[andimumxhiu]

It’s been a long time since the last time I enjoyed an interview as much as this one. The passion he has and the way he describes everything, the fluency, the vocabulary.. amazing.

[Achrononmaster]

@4:30 I loved this little anecdote. Sounds like Witten is unafraid to function as a platonist. The theoretical physicist who has a platonistic perspective has this power that every formalist and logical positivist cannot comprehend. They can of course be completely nuts and go way off the rails into fancy (like just every neoclassical economist ever), but they have this creative capacity they permit themselves. Everyone has it, but others do not permit themselves to exercise it fully.

[slipperysloper]

Proud to say I understood some of the words used in this video.

[therealjordiano]

Love when these guys go into detail, gets you a sense of what it's really like workin on these things

[shawnmlekush]

As an amateur psychologist deeply interested in remarkable individuals, I am SO thrilled to have seen this! Thank U!!!

[Carefaceeeee]

Man i would love if you could get Edward on the show :) Im afraid of his intellect in a good way

[videojeroki]

i recently learn how to solve a ribik's cube in less than 10min, so i can relate to Mr Witten.
Joke aside, i'm glad our society is free enough for those people to rise and in a long terme be able to improve the live of millions.

[markphc]

I was unhappy in my 1st Chemistry degree - wanting to understand everything, but not having time to study the deep mathematical foundations of the physical chemistry I was being taught

[texansforever]

if my parents called me cumrun im rioting

[JAYMOAP]

Absolute legend. Got an email from him years back still make my day

[ishyandmikkischannel]

Search for a YouTube video of 1979 Nobel Prize winner Abdus Salam discussing with Ed Witten - fascinating to listen to now. In 1990, I asked Salam what area shouid I work on - and he mentioned Chern-Simons theory in mathematics. I asked him who were the other great hope apart from ed Witten and he mentioned Cumrun Vafa. Now the other half of Chern-Simons is the famous mathematicain James Simons, who set up the hedge fund Rentech. And of course Vafa was hired by Rentech. Small world!

[politelyimpolite]

My God, these intellectuals live and think in a different dimension.

How incredible

[bohanxu]

The tale of a young mathematician learning the power of hand-waving~

[pilucapiluca]

2:28 Yes, I felt the same, I starting studing Physics and I change to Maths because of the "lack of rigor". It troubled me too.

[UnbekannterSoldat]

This is such good advice to help learning and develop passion for a subject. Connecting theory and practicality demands creativity and I think that's where truly invested people stand out from those who learn stuff just for the sake of making a living with it.

[robertbrown]

Thanks for posting this interview, so interesting to have personal insight into working alongside Edward Witten.