Garrett Lisi

I'm in love. Wait. I'm in a state of adoration. In a state of deep admiration. I don't know what I'm in really. I'm all in a tither. I'm tickled pink. Have you heard of Garrett Lisi? Well, I hadn't until I read this New Yorker article on him yesterday and now I can hardly concentrate. This person is totally captivating, completely engulfing, my imagination. I'm even dreaming about him (in interviews and such). What can you say about that?

They are calling him the next Einstein, but that's not really the point. The point is that he has been nearly homeless for years, loving only to surf and snowboard and stuff like that, sitting in a hammock or beach chair or wherever, and scribbling mathematics because he wants to. (We are talking real mathematics here; he is a PhD in Physics and extremely good at math.) He is not affiliated with a university, by choice. He has been going for a Theory of Everything in physics (uniting all the fundamental particles and gravity) on his own. He's taken a geometric approach, and suddenly (well actually a year ago) he's got it with E8, an exceptional Lie group, something complex and yet simple at the same time. (Well, maybe he's got it. But at least it can make predictions and be tested.) The structure of E8 is perhaps the most beautiful, full of symmetries, etc., in mathematics, and it seems to be working to describe the universe.

But, as if being a maverick genius uncovering beauty and underlying order in our universe wasn't enough, when you see him snowboard, damn is he ever elegant! He says the thing for him is not about defying gravity, it's about bending it. He goes horizontal on each curve, gently touching his hand to the snow.

And if being able to describe the universe and at the same time embrace it with childlike abandon isn't enough... he's also achingly human. He's got love troubles. And he talks about it. Or at least he had - he seems to be very happy with his current girlfriend of 4 years now. He has a blog that he's been keeping for years. It's completely open, like his research Wiki.
He even writes well and is polite.

Sigh... So there you have it. My archetype (or whatever it's called) for love is: genius, wonder, and pain. Where does this stuff come from? All this excitement, from characters on a screen.