Aug

11

Roy N.'s eulogy focused on the ways in which Vic's life could be said to be polytropic. I did not take very detailed notes, but as best I recall he said that polytropos (πολύτροπος) is a Greek adjective used as an epithet for Ulysses in the introduction to The Odyssey. It is a combination of polys (πολύς) meaning many or much and trópos (τρόπος) meaning a turn, way or direction. The exact meaning of the word is somewhat ambiguous, with modern translators making different choices:

George Chapman (1616): "Many a way wound".

Robert Fagles (1996): A "man of twists and turns". Vic's career certainly had many twists and turn and Roy reminded us of some of them. Some key dates were 1987, 1997, 2007 and others.

Samuel Butler (1900): "Many-sided hero". Famous in sports (tennis first and squash later), business (mergers and acquisitions), finance (trading) and acclaimed writer (The Education of A Speculator) Vic was many sided in his talents and accomplishments.

Emily Wilson (2017): "Complicated". Vic was certainly complicated as a person and in his private life. But "complicated" is also an allusion to "complicare" which in Latin means to "fold [a blanket or a sheet] into multiple layers". So we have the many layers idea again surfacing.

Robert Fitzgerald (1961): "Skilled in all ways of contending". Vic loved competition and was always trying to improve his skills and liked to teach others how to improve theirs. Life as preparation for battle.

E.V. Rieu (1946): "Resourceful man". Vic was certainly resourceful and recovered from many setbacks.

I could go on but you get the idea.

I just found out Polytropic is also a word in Thermodynamics, and I can just imagine Vic, who was always curious to learn new concepts, looking the word up in Wikipedia or a Thermo textbook, figuring out the charts and equations and asking: "what would a Polytropic trading strategy look like?, or What analogies to polytropic gases do we see in in everyday life?". Analogies between unrelated fields was an important thinking tool for Vic. An obscure new word could lead to unexpected insights he believed.


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search