I was there 2005-2007.

Right, so we did overlap, and probably interacted at least a little bit.

I just rewrote your post to be about me / Steve Jobs instead of you / Grothendieck, see http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/lpp/a_long_comment/. Maybe you can understand what I mean about the post "mostly not being about math".

Your rewriting feels strained to me, but regardless, the issue is of little consequence – like I said, I'll be getting into the particulars of math more soon.