Mark Carrigan

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The most gifted polymath of the 20th century reproaching himself about his laziness

Frank Ramsey (1903-1930) was one of the most influential thinkers of his time, despite dying at the age of 27. The work he did has enormous ramifications across Economics, Mathematics and Philosophy which are still playing out to this day, leading the philosopher Donald Davidson to coin The Ramsey Effect: discovering that your new breakthrough was actually already present in Ramsey’s work.

It’s therefore quite reassuring to see how he would reproach himself for his perceived laziness, as conveyed in this 1926 letter to his wife:

In the summer of 1926, he wrote to Lettice while she was in Dublin: I am so idle about reading things which are boring.…I decided to leave my L. Math. Soc. thing alone, but I’ve thought of ever so many ways in which, if I hadn’t been damned slack, I’d have made it better. That always happens; at least, also with my universals paper. I never write anything except in a hurry because it is pressing, and am too slack & self-satisfied to improve it afterwards at my leisure…I am sometimes mentally blind about my work. It is awful…

Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers loc 6134

Is this self-criticism a universal feature of academic work? Is the boundless nature of such work liable to leave one with the feeling more could and should be done?

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