>>11260663he wouldn't have gone into string theory, assuming he had a reasonably close personality to the actual grothendieck's personality. remember that grothendieck was a Bourbaki, and those people were mathematical "purists". this fits right in with the hoardes of mathfags who exist today who complain bitterly that physics and string theory are not well-defined enough for a proper mathematician.
hence you have based Witten being the one guy who is smart enough at math and ridiculous enough at string theory to single-handedly pick out all the research topics for both fields, since he has the ability to cut through the mathematical rigor crap that would hold him back while at the same time ignoring all the objections of old-school particle physicists who think he is too mathematical
