Einstein’s Persistence, Not Genius, Is the Reason We Know His Name | David Bodanis | Big Think
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- Опубликовано: 29 янв 2017
- Einstein’s Persistence, Not Genius, Is the Reason We Know His Name
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Einstein had three great character traits. "I might not be more skilled than other scientists," he liked to say, "but I have the persistence of a mule." If he built a house of cards and it came crashing down, young Einstein would exhale and start again, says biographer David Bodanis. He languished for many years in a patent office in Switzerland, unable to get a job as a high-school teacher, while in the top drawer of his desk were four recently completed papers - two of which were Special Relativity and E=mc2. He pressed on with his work until people noticed. Secondly, Einstein had a thick skin. One bad whisper can shatter most mere mortals, but in 1920 there was an anti-Einstein rally at the Opera House in Berlin, where people opposed to "Jewish science". Later still, in 1933, highly educated students from Göttingen, one of the greatest university in the world at the time, burned his books. Thirdly, he was inherently noble. He had a great conscience for his fellow humans, and used a huge amount of his income and other raised money to get people out of Germany and safely to America. Despite having thick skin, he was not callous - he had great sensitivity for humanity as a whole. Though the FBI did not let him be part of the team that built the atom bomb, Einstein’s work paved the way for the technology. When he heard the U.S. had dropped the bomb on Japan, he was grief stricken, and said "If I had known I wouldn't have lifted a finger." David Bodanis' most recent book is Einstein’s Greatest Mistake.
David Bodanis' most recent book is Einstein’s Greatest Mistake.
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DAVID BODANIS:
David Bodanis was born in Chicago, lived in France for a decade, and makes his home in London. He studied mathematics, physics and history at the University of Chicago, and for many years taught the "Intellectual Tool-Kit" course at Oxford University. He is fascinated by story-telling, and the power of ideas.
As an author his books include the New York Times bestselling THE SECRET HOUSE (1986); the bestselling and Samuel Johnson Prize longlisted E=MC2 (2001), which has been translated into 28 languages, was turned into a Channel 4/PBS documentary, and a ballet at Sadler's Wells (winning the Southbank Award for Best British Dance of 2010); the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize winner ELECTRIC UNIVERSE (2006); and the BBC Book of the Week - also featured on the cover of The Economist - PASSIONATE MINDS (2007). His newest work, EINSTEIN’S GREATEST MISTAKE, will be published in 2016.
As a futurist and business advisor, he has worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Scenario Prediction unit, modelling economic futures, as well as for the future planning unit at the World Economic Forum. He has been a popular speaker at TED conferences and at Davos, and most recently helped run an international study for the UK Treasury on the future of High-Frequency Trading. He has published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and appeared on Newsnight, Start the Week, and other programs. When not slumped in front of a laptop, he has been known to attempt kickboxing, with highly variable results.
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Transcript:
David Bodanis: 1905 Albert Einstein's mother thought he was a genius; his sister thought he was a genius; his father thought he was a genius, but he was stuck in the patent office in Bern Switzerland and nobody else thought he was a genius at all. We had mouthed off to his professor at his university. He didn't get any good job. His department of theoretical physics was the top drawer of his desk and he would slam it close. And he had tried all sorts of things. He was about 25/26, we had tried lots of ideas while he was stuck at the patent office. Nothing had really come together. And then suddenly in the spring of 1905 it was like a storm burst in his head. He poured out one of paper after another about four of them were worthy of the Nobel Prize. And the final two were Special Relativity and E=mc2.
Einstein once said he wasn't smarter than other people but he said I have the persistence of a mule. And he was really honest about it. When he was a little kid and he made card castles he'd make layer after layer after layer of card castles and if they blew down well he'd take a deep breath and build it up again.
Read the full transcript on bigthink.com/videos/david-bod...
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Being extraordinarily driven is what genius is though.
Its not about being genuinely intelligent but being able to see things in a new light.
Serah Wint That's why I appose pretentious art. It's lazy and anti creative. It's about believing worth be ause of social steretypes and glamorising instead of real worth. It's the equivalent of religious belief when people say others don't get it. Sure you can apply yourself to art and surrealism, but what's missing is usually a well thought out creative structure.
lol what? I can tell your not intelligent in the slightest way!
right man!
+Ellis Lyon *you're , Mr.Intelligent !
Well strictly speaking, intelligence is how well you use the information you have, as you say.
I merely meant that genius, are those few people who for some reason have a personality quirk that let's them step outside if conventions.
Matter of degree perhaps, but I think its a useful distinction.
TO CLEAR UP POSSIBLE CONFUSION:
When Einstein said he wouldn't have lifted a finger, he didn't mean that he agreed with the bomb dropping. What he meant say that if he knew The Axis wasn't going to succeed in creating the bomb he wouldn't have encouraged The Allies to create it.
Just the way Mr. Bodanis worded it made it a little ambiguous.
KKR im pretty sure everyone got that misconception including me, when that story was told, our teacher told it to us and thats what we all thought.
BULLSHIT. WHAT HE MEANT WAS CLEAR. HE REGRETTED HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE BOMB IN THE FIRST PLACE. YOU ARE JUST JUSTIFYING THE BOMB DROP
Thank you for saying this. I was so confused.
I have thought this for years. He was just so focused on asking the right questions about the universe.
i think he had both, that what makes him a fucking god of physics.
Can't believe they let Einstein in when an American could've had his job!
Tomyo95 yeah only Americans should do this stuff
Tomyo95 we should have made the wall a long time ago!
FocusMrbjarke if you werent a refugee fleeing, intellectual scholar, women, or politician, you were a soldier. So you voted for Trump?
Dan Bee I don't live in the USA? And the previous comment i made was sarcasm?
Einstein didn't want to cut anyone's head off, he also wasn't a smelly donkey fucker.
David is an amazing story teller, was very enjoyable to hear
CollideConquerGaming 😨😭hebrews and Einstein books 😢 and the people's education.
Yep. Maybe he better changed his profession to a story teller because cleverly he touched the fact that Einstein was a Jew.
Smart Halayla Everyone has a care it just different caring.
Well, some education methods are horrible when you see the out come. Watch this only if you are above 18 and have a strong nerves-
www.liveleak.com/view?i=b00_1408017222
Smart Halayla ❤💓💔💕💖💜💘💙💚💛💜💝💞💟✨✴⭐🌟🌠❇🎵🎶💐🎉🎊💮💯💡💫💦💧💨💪👀👂👃👄👅👆👇👈👉👣☝✊✋✌👊👋👌👍👎👏👐❗‼⁉❔❓❕💢💣💤💥💩💸🔥🆘⚠emotional intelligence is cerbaral
Has no one really analyzed how most people respond to failure and stress? A genius is an exception and Einstein's persistence is just another feature of his exceptionality.
einstein = growth mindset
energyeternal +deep work +grit +commitment
thats all you really need
And you forgot the haabiiits and the positive attitude and the self help books
I assume you've read Angela Duckworth's Grit ?
It's real for me!
At every oral exam I have, they tell me that I know a lot about the subject, but that I have no structure in my presentation.
Now I know how they feel when they tell me that
I didn't even notice the mouth sounds until the I read the comments....Now it's all I hear 😕😂
Some great pieces of information there. Keep up the good work, guys.
Einstein's dad died in 1902 thinking his son was a disappointment. Not sure why the biographer stated otherwise.
Kevin Romans good point
reaper557 did his dad explicitly say this or are you just being presumptuous
First, it is far from presumption to call the speaker out on saying, "In 1905...his father thought he was a genius...", given that is in the public record that Hermann Einstein died in October 1902.
Second, I would not call it presumption to make an inference based and what I have read of Einstein.
Both his parents railed against him marrying Mileva Maric throughout their courtship. His father only gave his consent on his death bed and then asked Albert to leave him to die after Albert had rushed to Milan to see him. Einstein's father also died before he became successful which is the other half of the speaker's statement that I contest. After going through the humiliation of writing to professors advocating for Einstein, Hermann died soon after Albert only became a low ranking patent clerk. In nothing I have read has a direct quote from the father stating his disappointment, but it is hard not to infer that conclusion.
This comes from various biographies. I would recommend reading, Einstein - Walter Isaacson.
reaper557 Still, it is your assumption. I personally would not have assumed that, though I would've clearly seen it as a possible option.
Plenty of parents don't think of their kids as dissapointments even when they're in a far worse social/proffesional situation. I wouldn't be surprised if Hermann did, but I would be equally unsurprised if he didn't.
And you did very much word your comment as a statement.
If lip smacking bothers you so much I am sad for you
I have not found my happiness through a lens of artificial perfection
I hope you do
To say Einstein wasn't a practical engineer is true but it's kind of analogous to saying, "Michael Jordan wasn't a good shot clock time manager". He was a successful theoretical physicist which is much harder than being any kind of engineer (a point to which those who are both physicists and engineers will readily admit). Engineering is a lower level engagement that one would never devote time to doing if one is engaged in theoretical physics and getting results. In fact, theoretical physics and theoretical mathematics are the highest categories of cognition which can be accomplished by the human mind. Engineering is awesome and, though it often makes more money, it is a lower ranking mental activity when compared to those aforementioned endeavors. No disrespect to engineers - I think some of what certain engineers do is beyond amazing and I also don't mean that every physicist is naturally smarter than every engineer - I simply mean being a physicist is a categorically more difficult task.
Sad but so true. Wish I had the brains for it.
As an engineering student who hopes someday to be an engineer and either a physicist, computer scientist, or maybe (maybe) a mathematician, I agree with what you've said. But the problem your statement is out of content. He didn't mean to make "engineers more superior to physicists" that wasn't he's point at all! he just stated that in order to make a point, which is that building the bomb in itself requires practical knowledge, which is gained by engineers.
Why they are not working on agi so ?
To be youself, and accept who you are is very crucial. He was human who understood how to use his brain. He is rolemodel and great man to all humanbeing.
Loved the story, wish you did more
The narrator has such a warm way to talk. really nice to listen
HAHAHA underrated comment
In the end, "he wouldn't have lifted a finger." what does it mean?
his middle finger probably? thug life!! u kno!3
I think me meant that if he had known they were going to use the bomb, he wouldn't have done anything to stop it.
"To lift a finger" make the slightest effort to do something.
Einstein said this because of correlation between his work and A-bomb.
Good question. It could mean that he wouldn't have done anything to stop the bomb, but it could also mean that he wouldn't have worked for America in the war.
he clearly meant that Einstein would not have put any effort in assisting in making the a-bomb. nothing more, nothing less.
Very validating as someone who has been called persistent in a tone of voice that implied displeasure... many times.
"Imigrants and their ideas... Get them out of here." - someone said.
"I don't pay taxes, I'm way smarter than that... Way smarter." - nobody did not say that.
I think the full quote was "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would have never lifted a finger."
Source? Or is that a joke?
He was also very likeable so that people could work with him; exchanging ideas and helping one another out.
I don't think anyone can speak for genius except the individuals blessed with it
Similarly, sometimes I think a genius can't understand the gap between themselves and most people
I think they have to put it down to persistence just to get past the loneliness of what being truly unique probably must be
Brilliant insight
More videos like this please
"If I had known i wouldnt have lifted a finger".It was said at the end of the video.I didnt get quite get its meaning. Can someone explain it please?
Excellent
aw man i really needed to watch this today. Just feels like I’m getting nowhere w job applications.
Man....that's stuff a lot of people don't know about Einstein......Great video
Grateful for Einstein and his genius .' If I would have known I wouldn't have lifted a fingure'. Thank you.
"if I had known I wouldn't have lifted a finger" i didn't understand what he meant by that.
He didn't tell you in the video, but Germany and America both were working on building a Nuclear bomb. Whoever would build it first would win the war. So Einstein had no choice but assist the US in making the bomb. He knew it'd be a terrible thing for humanity and once created, the threat of extinction would always loom large and dark on our heads.
Turns out, Germany wasn't even close to creating the bomb, they were experimenting with the wrong materials.
As Einstein got to know this, he said,
"If I had known, I wouldn't have lifted a finger."
God these comments are degenerate....
Oh damn, person with pepe and trump hair detected.
Abigail Sockeye Can I eat yours?-(sarcasm). Even if someone offends you that's still not necessary.
"I wouldn't have lifted a finger." to make the bomb? stop the dropping of the bomb? What is the last modifier in that sentence? does anyone know?
I also want to know!
His imagination was off the charts. Nobody can create it by just working hard.
I didn't get the last part. Can someone explain?
the true ability of the genius is to work every waking hour untill you finaly reach your goal
this video made me subscribe
So Einstein was a dead beat dad ..
John Hill Almost all men where like that back then. And women had no education or anything. The ignorance was profound all around.
Makes you appreciate how far we have gotten.
Edit: OK I know how that text might look. I did not try to put any feminist message into that.
I just meant that it was the culture back then. People where really clueless
His wife who he met at university had no education? Interesting...
Maxander2001 😂😂😂😂 caught her bullshit 😭😭😭😭
Yeaa Serah Wintit, wasn't like during the 1910's that only 7% of the women had secondary educated I mean it should be 100% right? Totally unfair compared to the HUUUUUGEE amount men with it I mean a whopping 8% of men had secondary education.... I mean that 1% just proves it. No women were EVERY educated ever before Gloria queefed justice on big daddy's face until big daddy surrendered, and there existed no physicians at all nor physicists before then.......
But honestly, it's the same reason in EVERY fucking age when it comes to this, it's down to ECONOMICS and PRAGMATISM.
And just as the media does with the "OMG look girls don't get education world wide", where they will either bluntly ignore that only a minor amount more boys than girls got to school or they will clump together boys and girls and put the number under the banner of helping girls go to school to inflate the numbers and ignore the boys.
Even in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia there are more women today that have secondary education. Why you might ask... well because men and even boys are the only one's by law obligated to provide for the family so education is only given as a necessary tool for that of which has been the reason since education among the masses has been possible. But then women who have no obligation gets room to get educated because men must get out to slave for the wage immediately. Many more reasons but that is the basics.
And the only reason why men took over after the 1920's and especially during the 50's and 60's in western countries was because it was often harsh times economically for many becuase you know World Wars and other stuff happened.
And more importantly the soldier that were forced to go to War were compensated with free education. And even with this women overtook graduation percentage already during the 70's though mostly like now it was a lot of fluff subjects with no future but still more. Then during the 80's it took over by a lot but also dropped in STEM fields by 20's to today's numbers, "coincidentally" the same time feminist lobbied legislation passed that changed curriculum and well.... apparently women are just lazy when they get pampered.
Education throughout history hasn't been a privilege except for a tiny few. It was a obligation so as to being able to provide and the boys and men were tasked to do this no matter their own wills or desires sexual dimorphism and pragmatism.
And regarding Einstein, well yes he was kind of an asshole. He was probably autistic in his focus and desire with patterns and objects instead of the social aspects of life. He liked to be by himself even at home apparently and one of his favourite places were a empty boat near his house.
No. He made a deal with his (soon to be ex) wife that he would give her the proceeds of any Nobel prize he received. In 1921 he got the Nobel for his paper on the photoelectric effect, and he did indeed give her the proceeds.
0:50
Looks like Einstein, was so persistent that his skills show through. Just goes to show you Talent might need other contributing factors to truly shine
Yep, this is the right take
Wow!
beautiful
that energy follows relativity opposite to mass.. e:mc2
I live historians. The hidden perspective they give on mainstream history is really eye-opening.
persistence!
His persistence is owed to his curiosity for understanding the universe. So guys just follow your curiosity and naturally you would be persistent in that.
3:48 - a lesson for today
Kinda did a time jump from obscurity to fame and fortune... Would've liked to know that part...
genius calms from QUALMS we are just his friends or tools
he have high vision ,and is enough to be Genius... for all respect for hem .
Is genius really distillate of persistence ? I would say it is a component of genius.
Einstein! ❤️
WOW
Gertingen University? (3:08) The subtitle translation is wrong (bad phonetics?). It should read Göttingen or Goettingen...
This was just a simple story about Einstein but I kind of liked it! :)
What was the message in this video?
It is not the weapon that kills, it is the person.
The university that burned Einstein's books makes me think of UC Berkeley today.
what have they done?
Someone has those books, they burned it so the masses couldn’t learn from them
Isn't it just super sad that someone like Einstein didn't have money ?
Very interesting video.. but i just couldn't continue through to the end because of his mouth smacking sounds!
whats the name of the german university?
he was smarter than other people tho. it was passion + intelligence and a healthy diligent life
I used to build tall card castles. Does that mean I'm a genius?
You're persistent
He did what he had to do. ❤🇺🇸
Lets not lie. Yes he worked hard but his genius is why he is known. His theory of relativity is absolutely genius...
… and plagiarized from Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Jules Henri Poincar .
The mathematician that solve his field equations in weeks was a genius. He did not believe what Bohr was trying to say (Quantum mechanics).
"If I had known I wouldn't have lifted a finger"
A better world is stubbornness
Take it as positive
So I have a hope
Je možné že ešte z menšie bublinky vznikol vesmír 🌌 z druhého vesmíru
Ah yes. His persistence, not his genius is why he was awarded time magazine man of the year. Remember kids, that guy face down outside your local liquor store breathing heavy at 10am? With enough persistence, he could learn to code and invent quantum calculus. Everyone is a genius, champ. Those coal miners in west Virginia are either lazy or not asking the right questions.
When are people going to admit that some people have giant hands like andre the giant, some people are 7.5 feet tall like Yao Ming, and some people are fucking geniuses like Albert Einstein. Is it really that far of a stretch?
jeez, ya take a nap and they drop the bomb.
I completely disagree, Einstein was a genius of the highest order, right up there with Newton. His theory of relativity, was ground breaking. He was very modest, and preferred to credit others, than boast of his own accomplishments.
Persistence is part of it. Special relativity and general relativity each took 10 years, as do many groundbreaking theories including work of Newton and Leibniz and Shannon. Breakthroughs are unpredictable. Also, all great minds are often wrong, as Feynman said. One thing about these guys. They had fantastic powers of concentration and were also good at taking breaks. Fascinating subject.
And sometimes he forgot to cite other's work... let's be honest :)
Einstein had a very hot wife... what?
BatDude27 maybe she had a brain fetish
+BatDude27 Was she a zombie?
and SHE couldn't get time to get in on his work? maybe he coulda pitched in with some a tha PARENT work
@@sidepin7458 She had the same degree as him according to the person in the video.
@@nichoudha He also loved sex.
👋Jedna planéta od povedala napi sa vody aby si mohol lietať ďalej
His statue at Frankfurt Airport was vandalized I wonder if it will be restored
gravity is plausible by retaining energy in a constancy..
Albert also had one of the biggest brains as well
I should think their was a degree of genius?
Does he mean the university of Göttingen? The subtitles say gertingen?
holy shit it was Einstein that brought that great power into the world
Einstein was a genius. The persistence is nothing without the cognitive ability.
Persistence leads to increase in skills.
@@sunnysied713 not everyone tastes the joy of success from persistence
So they conclude that it's not possible
the last quote would be enough to classify him as a national security threat.
what a life
By a storm burt in his head he means LSD ;D
Although this guy is a fantastic speaker, i have to disagree with him. Yes Einstein was an extremely persistent character, however those ideas all his ideas, general relativity, special relativity etc... really was the work of genius. The level of creativity that had to go in to coming up with those theories is unimaginable. Yes a lot of hard work, but it really was genius, I'm a physicist and it's crazy to imagine anybody coming up with such.
+Morris obviously, but he said he was a genius for his persistence, nowadays there are no Einstein's despite how hard people work
I will never read the comments section again. Like wtf is happening down here?
0:34 "AND THEN, SUDDENLY..." BULLSHIT. HE WAS THINKING THESE IDEAS FOR YEARS. THEY DIDNT APPEAR SUDDENLY
Einstein received Nobel prize for his photo voltic effect not for his theory on 'special relativity'.
I think you need to listen again.
Those who trust their intelligence to be better score less well on average. Efforts are rewarded.
his genius allowed him to persist and advance.
Einstein took some magic mushrooms 🍄 and came up with some crazy fucking theories.
☮️
During the whole talk I was staring at that tooth, good talk though
“Nothing in the world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not. The world is full of unsuccessful people with talent. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge
If I opened the book of the Universe and saw the sermon on the mount, I would know I had the wrong book.
I found the voice of the speaker repulsive. It just sounded so...moist.
Can anyone tell me how many times he kissed his lips?
For those who aren't gifted in speed listening, 0.75 speed should help.
So what was Einstein's biggest regret? The atomic bomb....which he didn't work on? And if so, how did his persistence lead to that? I must have missed something......
His wife was his cousin
But not his first wife, the one mentioned in the video.