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The number 1729 appears ordinary, but according

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to a famous story, mathematician G .H. Hardy

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once took a taxi cab numbered 1729 while visiting

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Servonavus Ramanujan in the hospital. Hardy remarked

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that the number seemed dull, but Ramanujan immediately

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replied that it was very interesting. It is the

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smallest possible number that can be written

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as the sum of two positive cubes in two different

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ways. In other words, 1 cubed plus 12 cubed equals

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9 cubed plus 10 cubed. Ramanujan saw structure

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where others saw, let's call it an unremarkable

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number. His notebooks contained thousands of

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identities and formulas and observations, and

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many of these were developed with little access

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to advanced mathematical training or even a community

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that was capable of evaluating his work. But

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his gift did not make his life easy. As a young

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man in India, Ramanujan lived with financial

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insecurity. and he struggled to find a place

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in institutions that did not know what to do

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with his unusual abilities. So he eventually

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sent examples of his work to Hardy at Cambridge.

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Hardy recognized their significance, and he helped

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bring him to England. That recognition changed

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Ramanujan's mathematical life, but it did not

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remove his vulnerability. He lived far from his

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family and culture during the First World War,

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and he faced difficulty obtaining food that was

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compatible with his diet, and he experienced

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serious and prolonged illness. He returned to

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India in 1919 and unfortunately died the following

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year at the young age of 32. Stories about genius

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often imply that extraordinary talent, can overcome

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any circumstance. Ramanujan's life suggests something

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maybe a little more sobering. Ability does not

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eliminate the need for food and health and friendship

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or welcome and care. A person may be capable

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of astonishing insight, but still be physically

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or emotionally fragile. Nor should we say that

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hardship created Ramanujan's mathematics. Poverty

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did not make his formulas more beautiful, and

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isolation did not improve his health. His suffering

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may have become part of the meaning of his life,

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but that does not make the suffering desirable.

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We can admire what he accomplished without treating

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deprivation as the price that genius ought to

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pay. But the story also contains a hopeful form

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of recognition. Hardy could not remove every

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hardship, but he did take Ramanujan's ideas seriously.

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He read his unfamiliar mathematics, and he responded

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to the person behind it. And then he helped create

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a place where Ramanujan could work. So, who has

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taken your abilities seriously when others did

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not? Or, whose overlooked gift might require

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your attention? Sometimes hope begins when one

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person looks at what others have dismissed as

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ordinary and says, yep, there is something important

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here.