I’m 2/3 of the way through Einstein’s biography by Walter Isaacson, and what a life that man had. And not only because of his intellect, but also because of the times: he was a Jew in Germany before WW1, after WW1, and during the rise of Hitler prior to WW2. Some of the highlights:
- Fair to midland student, not considered to be much by his high school teachers. Did poorly in math and hated geometry.
- Same goes for college, where he managed to graduate with what today would be considered a modest “B”.
- After graduating from college, could not get a job anywhere so he tutored high school students in math.
- Part of the reason (author’s opinion) was that on his job applications under “Religion,” he would put “none.”
- Finally got the job we all know about, at the Swiss patent office, where he spent most of his time looking out the window.
- Not coincidentally, the most common patent he had to deal with for those years were applications for gismos to synchronize the clocks in Switzerland.
- Fathered a baby he never met and gave up for adoption.
- Worked hard to come up with his theory of special relativity and finally, when out for a walk with a friend, stopped in mid-stride and mid-sentence. In a moment of inspiration, he had seen that the one variable that changed in the Universe was not mass or speed, but time. He rushed home to get his equations down.
- In his most famous papers dealing with relativity and special relativity, there is no bibliography, no credit for so and so’s help, nothing. Just a thanks to the friend mentioned above for talking to him until his mind snapped into place. There was not even a lab involved. It was all original thought.
- Could play a decent Mozart in his violin.
- Stayed at the White House (Roosevelt).
- Was a pacifist, also an internationalist. Did not believe in the draft or in war.
- After being published and upending the world of I. Newton, he still could not get a professorship.
- Left Germany for Belgium with a bounty on his head (5.000 US).
- Later, after the Nobel Prize, Cambridge, Oxford, Cal Tech, Princeton, all wanted him, but back when, no one.
- At one point ridiculed the idea of producing vast amount of energy from the atom. Later recanted, once he learned Germany was trying, and wrote a letter to Roosevelt credited with getting the Manhattan project off the ground.
- Love to sail his small wooden boat,
- Wrote poems (in German).
- And wrote letters to everyone every day, including Marie Curie.
There’s more for those that are interested,
mt