In 1950, Nash is still largely unpopular with his peers. Most of his interactions with other young men appear to be “motivated by an aggressive competitiveness and the most cold considerations of self-interest” (99). This leads many to assume that he is perfectly content existing in an “arid state of emotional isolation” (99). In fact, however, although he is clumsy in his approach, Nash does want “to be close to someone” (99).

When Nash befriends an older student named Lloyd Shapley, it is “the first of a series of emotional attachments Nash form[s] to other men” (99). Shapley is a brilliant mathematician and an emerging star of game theory who works at the RAND Corporation using “game theory applications to solve military problems (100).

Nash and Shapley share a mutual appreciation of each other’s brilliant minds although Nash largely expresses this by acting “like a thirteen-year-old having his first crush” (101). He bothers the older man constantly, leaving him notes and playing “all kinds of pranks on him” (101).

Nash also targets Shapley’s friends with pranks, some of which get “totally out of hand” (101). Often these seem to express jealousy about Shapley having other friends.