He was a real character. He was basically a math vagabond.
Ron Graham bet him $500 that he could not stop taking [amphetamines] for a month. Erdős won the bet but complained that it impacted his performance: […] “You’ve set mathematics back a month.” After he won the bet, he promptly resumed his use of Ritalin and Benzedrine.
Ah, so he likely had ADHD and self-medicated with the substance that just happened to be the most effective treatment for it, allowing him to actually be productive. And he “solved” the other issues of ADHD by trading his services for room and board at colleagues’ living spaces.
“Just happened to…?” He’s a genius, he likely asked doctors he knew what the effective medication would be, rather than just popping random pills.
I tend to be a bit tongue in cheek, but for more background he started in the 1970s, only a few years after stimulants were researched for ADHD treatment in children. He undoubtedly had connections in that area (the Erdós number is a thing, after all), and in the prior 30 years was known for drinking copious amounts of coffee, so better stimulants weren’t exactly a difficult jump to make regardless, but it wasn’t necessarily that he knew he had the condition now known as ADHD, just that they were what worked best for him.
A methematician if you will
He is the mathematician with most citations, right?
