>>13001250I have not thought of these incidents in ages
I was a kid and won a local math Olympiad, so got invited to observe a mathematics conference.
Most were mathematicians and scientists. One shabby looking man, who did not fit in at all. When a presenter was pretending a result, he got up , correct a number that was something like x^{1000y} where x was a prime number.
Eventually I was told that the guy was a bank clerk, but a mathematic genius. Everyone knew about him and used his results to publish, in return gave him some money.
Idk what happened to him, never heard of him after few years.
