Frail Lincolnshire Lad I. NewtonDuring an 18-month school vacation, developed calculus, inverse square law of gravitation, and laws of motion. |
Madras Clerk Srinivasa RamanujanAfter failing his school examinations, Ramanujan obtained a position as a clerk in the city of Madras. Before his death at age 32, made fundamental advances in mathematics including Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series and functional equations of the zeta function. |
Communist Gao XiqingManages more than $400 billion in assets accumulated by the government of China. |
Political activist Evariste GaloisMade enormous contributions to group theory, polynomial equations, and number theory prior to his death at age 20. |
Programmed by Eve Astrid Andersson and Philip Greenspun back in the mid-1990s. If you're a nerd, you might find the source code useful.
Original Inspiration: How to Make Yourself Miserable, by
Dan Greenburg