The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: The Fascinating People and Ideas Behind Planning Your Retirement Income

CHAPTER 7

IS MY CURRENT PLAN SUSTAINABLE?

EQUATION #7: ANDREI N. KOLMOGOROV 1903–1987)

Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was a textbook Russian of the early 20th century with the ultimate Marxist-Leninist resume. For starters, his mother, Maria, and aunt, Vera, were both imprisoned by the Tsarist regime in the late 19th century. Legend has it that his family hid outlawed revolutionary literature under Andrei's crib when he was a baby. His father—a scientific agronomist—worked for the communist government, formed after the revolution in 1917.

Kolmogorov grew up in Yaroslavl, near the banks of the Volga River, and attended a gymnasium, which is a type of specialized high school. He then enrolled in Moscow State University in 1920, where he studied mathematics and physics, as well as Russian history and communist thought. He was recognized as a mathematical prodigy when he managed to prove certain divergent Fourier series, not supposed to exist in theory, could be found in practice quite easily. (Trust me, this is a big deal in mathematics.)

Kolmogorov was also an avid and passionate outdoorsman. His meetings with students and colleagues would often take place high atop some mountain outside Moscow, or in a canoe on the Volga River. It is said that he'd swim for hours in frigid Russian lakes in the dead of winter and was also known for skiing long distances in his shorts (some say underwear) ...