"And so I had an idea, which turned out to be
related to that question, and so it was a little theorem
that I proved and I showed it to my thesis advisor, and
then he said, 'Oh, that could maybe help with this question.'
And he told me the question. And I said, 'Oh that's right,
maybe it could.' But he said, 'But don't work on that.'
He says, 'Borel has worked on that, Singer has worked
on that, a lot of people have tried to do this without success.'
But that has just got me fired up. And so I solved that problem…."
— The late James H. Simons, on his thesis advisor Bertram Kostant.
The thesis advisor reportedly died on Groundhog Day, 2017.
See as well, in this journal, Facets for Snorri.