His writing does come across that way. He is self-confident, certainly. I have met him in person. He is actually a kind and generous person. He is also very likely to be the smartest person in the room most places he goes. I met him at a place where there were a lot of other math PhD's in the room (not me by any stretch) so maybe he felt he was among his people and was mixing more naturally. But in any case, my approach was to shut up and listen because I was more likely to learn something that way.
His writing does come across that way. He is self-confident, certainly. I have met him in person. He is actually a kind and generous person. He is also very likely to be the smartest person in the room most places he goes. I met him at a place where there were a lot of other math PhD's in the room (not me by any stretch) so maybe he felt he was among his people and was mixing more naturally. But in any case, my approach was to shut up and listen because I was more likely to learn something that way.