I agree that the title was intriguing and although I am not fluent in mathematics at the level discussed in the article, I found the biographical sections very interesting and the writing style to be engaging.
Particularly interesting were the comparisons with Boltzmann and Cantor, apparently also "tortured" or at least socially eccentric, geniuses. My understanding of their work is limited but the author of this article seemed to allude to the risks of, or at least correlations with, psychological instability and research at the extreme frontiers of mathematics. (I know this notion is a tired cliche, but still...)
If anyone out there has an understanding of how Grothendieck "deepened the concept of a geometric point" and feels the urge to explain it in layman terms, I have an upvote for you!
So...having read the article (honestly!), I'm still not sure why this is the title.
He bounced around Europe as a young man (due to WWII), but he did the vast majority of his work in France. However, Wikipedia says he was technically stateless because he held off on applying for French citizenship.
I would guess the title an allusion to that--and his reclusiveness later in life, but I still feel like I'm either missing something or something was lost in translation. Is it a quote or paraphrase of something?
About midway through the article, Cartier (the author) says that "Grothendieck had a taste and a talent for naming things, which he used as a major intellectual strategy. Thus, my title, “A Country Known Only by Name,” is an homage to his way with words."
I agree with others that it's not the most straightforward title he could have used (although I don't think it's the same thing as clickbait). But personally I enjoyed the sense of mystery it lent to an article I might otherwise have skipped.
I read that but the country part still confuses me--it's a very odd way to refer to a person. This made me wonder if it was a reference to something. "No Country for Old Men", for example, is from the first line of "Sailing to Byzantium", a poem by Yeats.
Not necessarily, since the internet is notorious for producing awful article titles. (Although usually they're deliberate clickbait rather than this sort of obscureness.) I believe HN's policy is to change the title if it's confusing or inaccurate.
I'm just baffled why this is getting downvotes. If you don't like HN's policy, complain to dang, not me. If you don't think there's a lot of clickbait on the internet, there's really nothing I can do for you.