Founders - #187 Albert Einstein

Starting point is 00:00:00 Einstein had insisted that his ashes be scattered so that his final resting place would not become the subject of morbid veneration. But there was one part of his body that was not cremated. In a drama that would seem fake were it not so horrifying, Einstein's brain ended up being, for more than four decades, a wandering relic. Hours after his death, a routine autopsy was performed by the pathologist at Princeton Hospital, Thomas Harvey. When he stitched the body back up, Harvey decided, without asking permission, to embalm Einstein's brain and keep it. The next morning, in a fifth grade class at Princeton School, the teacher asked her students what news they had heard. Einstein died, said one girl, eager to be the first to come up with that piece of information. But she quickly found herself topped by an unusually quiet

Starting point is 00:00:50 boy who sat in the back of the class. My dad's got his brain, he said. Einstein's family was horrified. Harvey insisted that there may be scientific value to studying the brain. Einstein would have wanted that, he said. Einstein's son, unsure what legal and practical rights he now had in this matter, reluctantly went along. Soon, Harvey was besieged by those who wanted Einstein's brain or a piece of it. He was summoned to Washington to meet officials of the U.S. Army's pathology unit, but despite their requests, he refused to show them his prized possession. Guarding it had become a mission. Harvey decided to have friends at the University of Pennsylvania turn part of it into microscopic slides, and so he put Einstein's brain, now chopped

Starting point is 00:01:35 into pieces, into two glass cookie jars and drove it there in the back of his Ford. Over the years, in a bizarre process, Harvey would send off slides or chunks of the remaining brain to random researchers who struck his fancy. In the meantime, he quit Princeton Hospital, left his wife, remarried a couple times, and moved around, often leaving no forwarding address, the remaining fragments of Einstein's brain always with him. In 1998, after 43 years as the wandering guardian of Einstein's brain, Thomas Harvey, by then 86, decided it was time to pass on the responsibility. So he called the person who currently held his old job as pathologist at Princeton Hospital and went by to drop it off.

Starting point is 00:02:26 Okay, so that was an excerpt from the epilogue of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Einstein, His Life in Universe, and it was written by Walter Isaacson. Okay, so before we jump back into the book, I want to tell you how this fits into everything else that we've been talking about. One thing that I read about Steve Jobs that I thought was really interesting was the fact that he would learn from every experience and then bring everything he learned from every experience back to Apple. And he said something about J. Robert Oppenheimer that I thought was really interesting. And I'm going to read directly from this action, another book written by Isaacson. It's Steve Jobs' biography. And this is Steve Jobs talking. He says, at Pixar, it was a whole company of A players.

Starting point is 00:03:00 So when I got back to Apple, that's what I decided to try to do. My role model was J. Robert Oppenheimer. I read about the type of people he sought for the atom bomb project. I wasn't nearly as good as he was, but that's what I aspired to do. So that made me think to go look for a book on J. Robert Oppenheimer. So I started listening to the audio book. This book is called The General and the Genius, Groves and Oppenheimer, the unusual partnership that built the atom bomb. And while I'm listening to the audiobook, Einstein, of course, has mentioned a lot that made me remember that I had a biography of his on Kindle, and I should reread it, and then I can make a podcast on it. So that's how this idea came about. And towards the end of Einstein's life, him and Oppenheimer are at the same institute

Starting point is 00:03:43 at Princeton. So actually, there are several highlights towards the end of Einstein's life, him and Oppenheimer are at the same institute at Princeton. So actually, there's several highlights towards the end of the book where they're interacting and their interaction is really fascinating. So I'll get there. I'm going to probably read two books on Oppenheimer. Give me a few weeks. And I think I'm going to put both those books in one podcast. So that's that's the plan, at least for now. Let's focus on Einstein now. It's a lot to learn from him. I want to start with his personality. Definitely a misfit. There's a lot. I feel Isaacson in this book more so than any other of the biographies I've read that he's written. He repeats himself a lot in terms of what is Einstein's personality traits that he applies to everything he does.

Starting point is 00:04:17 And so the first thing that he talks about is the fact that he's definitely an independent thinker. He's definitely a misfit. So he says, Einstein remained consistent in his willingness to be a serenely amused loner who was comfortable not conforming. Independent in his thinking, he was driven by an imagination that broke from the confines of conventional wisdom. His imprudent instincts, which served him so well as a young scientist, made him allergic to anything that smacked of a herd mentality. So I wanted to find that word imprudent because he uses that Einstein. There's a one of the great things about

Starting point is 00:04:49 this book is we're going to there's a lot of quotes directly from Einstein. So he gets to speak for himself a lot. And he has a maxim that he repeats where he says, long live imprudence. It's my guardian angel, angel in this world. And so when you go to the dictionary and you look up imprudent, it says not showing due respect for another person impertinent. And so when you go to the dictionary and you look up imprudent, it says not showing due respect for another person impertinent. And the reason I bring that up now is because Isaacson just said, hey, this trait served him well as a young scientist. He was able to constantly question like to receive wisdom. And that's what Einstein's obviously known for, because he rethought the fundamentals of physics. But as we'll see, that's also a mistake he made early when he was extremely young. The fact that he did not show respect to other people around him.

Starting point is 00:05:28 And so even though he was undeniably brilliant and even his professors in college said he was brilliant, no one would give him a job. So he actually struggled because of his inability. He was he had a hard time relating to other people and dealing with them. Now, he learned he's obviously genius. his name is synonymous with genius, right? He learned to temper that trait and learned that, hey, this is a skill I'm going to need to work on to improve the conditions of my life. But I do find it always fascinating that there is, or there are, I should say, traits that are strengths in one domain and weaknesses in another. So just remember that for later. He never lost, this is something I think we should emulate, he never lost his childlike curiosity. Adding to his aura was his simple humanity. His inner security was tempered by the humility that comes from being awed by nature.

Starting point is 00:06:11 He could be detached and aloof from those close to him, but toward mankind in general, he exuded a true kindness and gentle compassion. So we're still in the introduction. Isaacson's telling us what is the value in studying the life of Einstein. And then Einstein's going to speak for himself as well. So it says, an appreciation for the glories of science is a joyful trait for a good society. It helps us remain in touch with that childlike capacity for wonder about such ordinary things as falling apples and elevators that characterizes Einstein and other great physicists. That is why studying Einstein can be worthwhile. Near the end of his life, Einstein was asked what schools should emphasize. And I love this. In teaching history,

Starting point is 00:06:54 he replied, there should be extensive discussion of personalities who benefited mankind through independence of character and judgment. He could have been speaking about himself and that that same quote is coming from isaacson or excuse me from einstein is exactly what isaacson what was his point that we should be studying the personalities who benefited mankind through independence of character and judgment now back to isaacson einstein fit into that category and when i got to this section it made me think of this quote that i always that i have saved on my phone that I look at from time to time. And it's from one of my favorite writers, this guy named Tim Urban. I've mentioned him multiple times on the podcast. He does. He writes the Wait But Why blog. You can go to WaitButWhy.com and see how he's writing.

Starting point is 00:07:34 But he says, I'm fascinated by those rare people in history who managed to dramatically change the world during their short time here. And I've always liked to study those people and read their biographies. Those people know something the rest of us don't, and we can learn something valuable for them. So I think what Tim, Isaacson, and Einstein are all saying the same thing. This is Einstein on imagination being more important than knowledge. As a young student, he never did well with rote learning. His success came not from the brute strength of his mental processing power, but from his imagination and creativity.

Starting point is 00:08:02 As he once declared, imagination is more important than knowledge. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom, challenging authority, and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals. This is also something that's repeated over and over again throughout the book. Tyranny repulsed him,

Starting point is 00:08:23 and he saw tolerance not simply as a sweet virtue, but as a necessary condition for a creative society. And he's going to say something right now that we've heard many, many times before in these biographies. It is important to foster individuality, he said, for only the individual can produce the new ideas. So that is something that people like Charles Kettering, Edwin Land, Warren Buffett, David Ogilvie, Larry Ellison. There's just example after example. They all say things like this. They don't believe in some of them don't even mince words by any means.

Starting point is 00:08:55 There is no such thing as group creativity. It all comes from individuals. And so we have Einstein right here echoing that same thought. Only the individual can produce the new ideas. And that's a great way to think about Einstein or the life of Einstein. He was an individual through and through. He never considered himself part of the group. The reason he was able to come up with such strange ideas is because he voluntarily sought solitude.

Starting point is 00:09:19 It's not much different. Obviously, it's applied to a different domain. But when we were studying people like Claude Shannon or Henry Singleton, they were similar to Einstein. They did all their best work alone. They did not pay much attention to the outside world. And they realized you don't get outsized results by mimicking the herd. And then finally, before we get into his early life, Isaacson does a great job of it's just this is a perfect note of myself. It's a perfect way to tie all this together. Like, why is all this important? This outlook made Einstein a rebel with a reverence for the harmony of nature.

Starting point is 00:09:48 One who would just the right blend of imagination and wisdom to transform our understanding of the universe. And he ties it all together right here. The sentence. These traits are just as vital for this new century in which our success will depend on our creativity. OK, so let's go into his personality as a kid. A lot of these personality traits stay with him for his entire life. He was generally a loner, a tendency he claimed to cherish throughout his life, although his was a special sort of detachment that was interwoven with a relish for camaraderie and intellectual companionship. From the very beginning, he was inclined to separate himself from other children his own age and engage in daydreaming and meditative musing. This is his sister's

Starting point is 00:10:25 description of him. I think Einstein's around 10 or 12 years old at this time. Persistence and tenacity were obviously already part of his character. And this is just great advice from him. People like, he's writing to a friend, people like you and me never grow old. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we are born. So curiosity is a main theme in this book. If Einstein were here, he would definitely tell you to be more curious. Even from a very early age, he had the ability to focus on a goal. By age 12, he already had a predilection for solving complicated problems and applied arithmetic. And he decided to see if he could jump ahead by learning geometry and algebra on his own. His parents bought him the textbooks in advance so that he could master them over

Starting point is 00:11:08 summer vacation. Not only did he learn the proofs in the books, he tackled the new theories by trying to prove them on his own. Play and playmates were forgotten. For days on end, he sat alone immersed in the search for a solution, not giving up before he had found it. And then he finds pleasure in working on his entire life. He loves to work on problems because of all the work you have to put in, but then the reward you get when you actually find the solution. When Einstein triumphed, as he invariably did, he was overcome with great happiness. Another thing about Einstein, he was comfortable not being a conformist. He had an allergic reaction against all forms of dogma and authority. He would later be able to pull off this contrarianness with a grace that was generally endearing once.

Starting point is 00:11:52 This is so important. Once he was accepted as a genius. This gave him a lot of problems before that. And I'm going to spend a lot of time talking about that because I think it's so fascinating. But it did not play so well when he was merely a sassy student in Munich. He was very uncomfortable in school. He found the style of teaching, rote drills, impatience with questioning, to be repugnant. The systematic training in the worship of authority was particularly unpleasant. He's not even a teenager yet when he's going through all this.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Skepticism and a resistance to received wisdom became a hallmark of his life as he proclaimed, quote, a foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth. So he hates the school so much. Now, I fast forwarded. He's in what would be like the equivalent of high school. So he's going to drop out to study on his own in hopes of just taking the test so he can get admittance into university. But we see when he's doing this, he also, a lifelong trait and something that's talked about from his family, friends, is the fact that he had immense powers of focus and concentration. Einstein had promised his family that he was studying on his own to get into the local technical college. So he bought all of the three volumes of advanced physics texts and copiously noted his ideas in the margins. His work habits showed his ability to concentrate. Even in a large, noisy group, he could withdraw to the sofa, take a pen and paper in hand,

Starting point is 00:13:15 and lose himself so completely in a problem that the conversation of many voices stimulated rather than disturbed him. And this idea of being lost in thought, there are some hilarious stories of Einstein. The last 22 years of his life, when he escapes Germany and Hitler, he winds up living and working at Princeton. So I got a lot of funny stories about this later on. Eventually, while he's studying his own, he also finds, I don't have it in my notes, unfortunately, I can't remember if this school's in Germany or if it's in Switzerland. He felt like if there's any country in the world, at least the first part of his life that he identified with it was definitely switzerland so he winds up finding a school realizing that not all schools are the same it's not all just rote learning and and you can't question the

Starting point is 00:13:54 teachers of the material um so there's a guy named pestalossi and this is the school he created the one that einstein's going to he also thought it was important to nurture the inner dignity and individuality of each child. Students should be allowed to, this is Pestalozzi's philosophy that Einstein agrees with, by the way, students should be allowed to reach their own conclusions by using a series of steps that begin with hands-on observations and then proceed to intuitions, conceptual thinking thinking and visual imagery it was even possible it was even possible to learn and truly understand the laws of math and physics that way rote drills memorization and force-fed facts were avoided now this is einstein talking about this time in his life when compared to six years six years schooling at a german

Starting point is 00:14:41 authoritarian gymnasium einstein later, it made me clearly realize how much superior an education based on free action and personal responsibility is to one relying on outward authority. Let me read that part again, because I just realized it made me realize how much superior an education based on free action and personal responsibility is to one relying on outward authority. Okay okay so he's comparing contrasting his time in that german authoritarian school to this school right he will say the same and i have highlights so we'll talk about this later but he'll say the same thing when he's around i think he's 40 years old uh he's living in berlin at the time student revolutionaries

Starting point is 00:15:21 kidnap the deans of the college that he's at right and einstein goes to try to convince these student revolutionaries to release the deans and they're asking they're drawing the student revolutionaries are drawing up like new laws this is how the university is going to be guided and they're asking einstein what do you think of this and he said something really interesting and i'll go into more detail, but he said teachers should be free to teach how and what they want, and then that students should be free to select into the classes they want. The revolutionaries, and I put that in quotes, of course, want to make all the decisions for everyone else so they don't listen to his advice. But it's really interesting now looking back that this is something that he believed over

Starting point is 00:16:02 multiple decades, the fact that it's up to the individual. It's almost like, I mean, he does this later on too, to develop, we talked about this idea that everybody should have their own personal curriculum and it's not a curriculum that ends when you're in school. And I think Einstein would agree with that. So this is a description of 16 year old Einstein. He was sure of himself. He strode energetically up and down in a rapid, crazy tempo of a restless spirit, which carries a whole world in itself. Whoever approached him was captivated by his superior personality. Young Einstein had a sassy, sometimes intimidating wit.

Starting point is 00:16:33 Okay, so I want to fast forward in Einstein's life to when he was in college. And this is where we get back with the issue with imprudence, right? Einstein's rebel nature leads him to be an antagonist with his main physics professor. And this is a mistake and a big problem later on when he tries to get a job. So this is where we're going to learn what not to do, the parts where we don't want to emulate him.

Starting point is 00:16:57 So it says Weber, that's his main physics professor. So let me, I guess, let me back up. What was expected to happen at the school he's going to, you get your degree in physics and then you graduate and then you become a teacher. Maybe you start at like a high school or a junior professor and then you work your way up. Every single other person in Einstein's class gets hired except Einstein because of his attitude and his just, he is a rebel and a misfit, which is why we like to study him. But you got to know when to temper these, these personality traits. And he didn't know when to do that he doesn't get his job till nine years after he graduates and four years after he revolutionizes nises physics so that gives you an idea of just how you know his personality to people especially people that were above him in some ways like teachers or people that he was supposed to

Starting point is 00:17:43 listen to i guess in some degree uh just shows that they were turned off by it. And this is what Weber's going to say. Weber's irritation was yet another example of how Einstein's scientific as well as personal life was affected by the traits deeply bred into his soul. His casual willingness to question authority, his sassy attitude in the face of regimentation and his lack of reverence for received wisdom you're a very clever boy einstein weber told him an extremely clever boy but you have one great fault you never let yourself be told anything and we're going to see why that's both a strength and a weakness because he's going to start beefing with his other physics professor too oh and i got to back up weber the reason he can't get a job is because everybody checks his references

Starting point is 00:18:23 and weber tells them no don't hire this guy So that's a problem. On those rare occasions when Einstein did show up in this guy's name is Pernet. In Pernet's class, his independent streak sometimes got him in trouble, such as the day he was given an instruction sheet for a particular experiment. With his usual independence, Einstein naturally flung the paper in the waste paper basket. He proceeded to pursue the experiment in his own way. So Pernet is talking this over with his teaching assistant. He's like, what do you make of Einstein? He always does something different from what I've ordered. And I thought his assistant's reply was very fascinating. He does indeed, professor, but his solutions are right and the method he uses are of great interest. And so this is where we get into the part where he's developing

Starting point is 00:19:02 his own personal curriculum. I can't decide if personal curriculum or personal research and development is the better way to describe that idea but he's doing that's what he's doing i played hooky this is einstein i played hooky a lot and studied the masters of theoretical physics with a holy zeal at home and another thing about einstein is that he used diving into his work and being extracted his work as a distraction from what he calls the merely personal. So he says strenuous intellectual work and looking at God's nature are the reconciling fortifying yet relentlessly strict angels that shall lead me through all of life's troubles. He's got a beautiful way of speaking by the way he's mastered language and yet what a peculiar way this he's describing himself, right?

Starting point is 00:19:46 The fact that he's just he just dives into this distraction because he understands math and physics, but he doesn't understand humans. And yet what a peculiar way this is to weather the storms of life. In many a lucid moment, I appear to myself as an ostrich who buries his head in the desert sand so as not to perceive the danger. This is a state of Einstein's life. The year is 1900. He is 21 years old. He has graduated. He was a low-ranked graduate of a teaching college without a teaching job, without any research accomplishments, and certainly without academic patrons. Among the many surprising things about the life of Albert Einstein was the trouble he had getting an academic job. It would be an astonishing nine years after his graduation and four years after the miracle year

Starting point is 00:20:30 in which he upended physics before he would be offered a job as a junior professor. This sentence is perfect. The delay was not due to a lack of desire on his part. So what does that mean? He's got a people problem. The problem was that the two physics professors at the Polytechnic were acutely aware of his imprudence, there's that word against, but not of his genius. Getting a job with Pernet, who had reprimanded him, was not even a consideration. As for Weber, he had developed, listen to this, this is not what

Starting point is 00:21:00 you want to do. You want to build relationships with people in your life, even if you don't like them. He had developed such an allergy to Einstein that when no other graduates of the physics and math department were available to become his assistant, he instead hired two students from the engineering division. So everybody else is taken. Einstein's still there. Yeah, he's a genius. I don't want to deal with him. I'll go to the engineering department. That's not good. And this is a summary of the whole section. He managed to become the only person graduating in his section who was not offered a job. So this also relates to building companies. Sam Walton in his autobiography, Made in America, he's got a great, he's writing on that book. He knows he's got cancer. He knows he's going to die very soon.

Starting point is 00:21:39 And he's just got tons of great lessons in the book. It's a fantastic read if you haven't read it yet, but he says something that I will always remember. And he says, this is a direct quote from Sam, I learned a long time ago that exercising your ego in public is definitely not the way to build an effective organization. And without doubt, Sam Walton, giant ego, as he should have an ego, but he kept it hidden. He uses ego for confidence and drive, but not to strut it like a peacock, not to show it. Other people do not. It's human nature. They don't like seeing ego in other people. You got to hide it. And so let me read that to you again. I learned a long time ago that exercising your ego in public is definitely not the way to build an effective organization. Very few people have built more

Starting point is 00:22:20 effective organizations in the history of humankind than Sam Walton. Maybe we should listen to him. This is Einstein on his inability to get hired. and he's just really witty and extremely likable now it's interesting i told you before the benefit of reading biographies is like you feel you feel you get to know by the time you you know this is a 20 hour read you feel after spending so much time you you uh usually get the essence of the person you feel like they you know them i don't feel that with einstein uh he's a likable person he's a witty person but. You feel like you know them. I don't feel that with Einstein. He's a likable person. He's a witty person. But I do feel like he did hide himself a little bit.

Starting point is 00:22:49 Even like you understand how he thinks. But the actual person behind there, I don't have that feeling. But I do like his wit and just the funny stories he has. So this is on his inability to get hired. I leave no stone unturned and do not give up my sense of humor. God created the donkey and gave him a thick skin. So Einstein's having a tough time. His father does something. His father writes to a professor that Einstein applied to but never heard back from. And there's a great, great irony at the end of this. And so let me read you the letter from

Starting point is 00:23:23 Einstein's father. Albert is 22 years old. He studied at Zurich Polytechnic for four years and he passed his exam with flying colors last summer. Since then, he's been trying unsuccessfully to get a position as a teaching assistant, which would enable him to continue his education in physics. All those in a position to judge praises his talent. I can assure you that he is extraordinary, studious and diligent and clings with great love to his science. He therefore feels profoundly unhappy about his current lack of job. And he becomes more and more convinced that he has gone off the tracks with his career. Since it is you with whom my son seems to admire and esteem more than any other scholar in physics. It is you I have written.

Starting point is 00:24:02 Excuse me. It is to you. It is you to have written, or excuse me, it is to you, it is you to whom, sorry, I have taken the liberty of turning with the humble request to read his paper and to write to him, if possible, a few words of encouragement so that he might recover his joy in living and working. If, in addition, you could secure him an assistance position, my gratitude would know no bounds. I beg you to forgive me for my imprudence in writing you. That word is used a lot by the Einstein's, huh? And my son does not know anything about my unusual step. So the guy,

Starting point is 00:24:32 the person he's writing is a guy named Oswald. We're going to get to the ironic part. Oswald still did not answer. However, he would become nine years later, the first person to nominate Einstein for the Nobel Prize. That's hilarious. So he wouldn't even bother to respond to him, wouldn't hire him. But nine years later, he nominates him for the Nobel Prize. That made me think there's one of the co-founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton. He would live tweet, this was like back in, I think, 2009,

Starting point is 00:25:02 as he goes on these job interviews at all these tech companies, and he's just not getting hired over and over again. So he winds up applying at Facebook. They don't hire him in 2009. Five years later, he winds up selling WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion. So another example of history's nice irony there. Let's go back to Einstein's emotional state at this point. As you can imagine, it's not well. He became so discouraged that at least for the moment, he felt it futile to continue his search. Under these circumstances, it no longer made sense to write further to professors. This is, that wasn't clear.

Starting point is 00:25:35 This is a quote from Einstein. Under these circumstances, it no longer makes sense to write further to professors. Since, should things get far enough enough along it is certain that they would inquire with weber and he would again give a poor reference so this goes back to somebody that that really helped improve my thinking about this because i understand the instinct to be a rebel to be a pirate to like say you know forget you like we don't get along it doesn't matter um one of my favorite podcasters and who i got the idea for the format of this podcast is jaco willand uh jaco podcast said he calls it a course, his podcast is a course on military history,

Starting point is 00:26:09 which I think is a great way to describe it. But he's got a video on YouTube that I've sent to a few friends, some strong-willed, stubborn, pig-headed friends. And sometimes they'll talk about the issues they're having, sometimes it's with a boss, a coworker, whatever it is. But the name of the video is How to win with people you don't like. How to win with people you don't like. Jocko put that into YouTube and you can see it. And his whole point is like it's irrelevant if you don't like them or not. Like to succeed in the world, you're going to have to work with other humans.

Starting point is 00:26:39 And some of those other humans, of course, you're not going to get along with. But it's your responsibility to build a relationship. So because building a relationship with this person is what's going to make you effective. And he talks about when he was younger, when he was in his early 20s, was exactly what Einstein is now, that he was hotheaded, that that he thought he knew better. Even people that were that were his bosses at the time. He's like, oh, this guy's stupid. And then one time he realized how ineffective he was being. He says his whole perspective on this changed when he's like, if I'm so smart, how come I can't get this guy to do what I want him to do? And that's when he realized he wasn't, he may be smart, but he wasn't acting smart.

Starting point is 00:27:13 He had to build a relationship. So let's say, you know, you don't necessarily agree with Weber, with his view or the way he teaches. That's fine. You don't have to tell him that. You can still build a relationship. Humans don't like when you criticize them directly. You have to use an indirect approach. So if you know anybody who's struggling with that, or again, I just think it's worth, I think the video is like, I don't know, 10 minutes. I can't tell you how many times I've sent it to people because it's just, it's the best succinct way to describe how to put your ego

Starting point is 00:27:41 aside and just be effective. Like go out and don't let your inability to get along with other people stop you from whatever service or whatever goal you're after and in the case of einstein like this caused him a lot of you know i don't know maybe heartache yeah he's despaired he's depressed i guess it is heartache um and it was just unnecessary and this is also not only i think he would agree that's unnecessary because later on in life he learns obviously he's smart and he stops doing this doesn't ever stop talking he definitely has a lot of disagreeable opinions to other people and it's written about in the newspaper later on which I'll go over but he does figure out a way to take a tactful approach so he can actually okay if it's if it's

Starting point is 00:28:19 in his best interest to accomplish something and somebody's standing in his way he'll learn how to deal with them I guess is what I'm saying. So he has no luck becoming a teacher. This is where one of the legend of Einstein is the fact that he was making all these great contributions to physics. And he wasn't a professor. He was a patent clerk in Switzerland. So this is how he gets the job. Just when Einstein was beginning to despair, his friend Grossman wrote that there was likely to be an opening for an examiner at the Swiss Patent Office, located in Bern. Grossman's father knew the director, and he was willing to recommend Einstein. And this is where he's ecstatic. Just think what a wonderful job this would be for me. I will be mad with joy if something should come of that. And this is the

Starting point is 00:28:58 maxim I mentioned earlier. In a line that could be considered yet another maxim for his life, Einstein recounted, long live imprudence. It is my guardian angel in the world. So let's go back to his schedule when he's working at the patent office. So in 1905, it's considered his miracle year. That's when he writes the four most important papers or some of the most important papers of his life. And his schedule is rather crazy.

Starting point is 00:29:20 So it says it was Albert Einstein. So it was that Albert Einstein would end up spending the most creative seven years of his life arriving at work at 8 a.m. six days a week and examining patent applications. I'm frightfully busy every day. I spend eight hours at the office and at least one hour of private lessons. And then in addition, I do some scientific work. He soon learned that that he could work on the patent application so quickly that it left time for him to sneak in his own scientific thinking during the day i was able to do a full day's work in only two or three hours the remaining part of my day i would work on my own ideas and so there's

Starting point is 00:29:55 something that einstein learns from his boss at the patent office that i think is really useful and something we should think about as well his boss had a credo that was useful for a creative and rebellious theorist as it was for a patent examiner. And we're going to see that his name's Holler. I think Holler's credo is very similar to a tactic that Jeff Bezos uses. So this is Einstein's boss. You have to remain critically diligent, question every premise, challenge conventional wisdom and never accept the truth of something merely because everyone else views it as obvious.

Starting point is 00:30:28 Resist being credulous. When you pick up a patent application, think that everything the inventor says is wrong. So Jeff Bezos does that exact same thing. I did a bonus episode a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago or two months ago. I don't know. It's called Working Backwards. One of the co-authors of that book was Jeff Shadow for several years. And so in that book, he gives us a simple tip from Jeff Bezos on how to produce unique insights. And so let me read from that book to you real quick. Jeff has an uncounting ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at

Starting point is 00:30:58 insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten. He assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He's challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer. Jeff, by the way, was usually among the last to finish reading. And so we see here, Einstein's boss is telling him the same thing. Hey, when you pick up this application, think that everything the inventor says is wrong. So while he's living in Bern,

Starting point is 00:31:32 he's got a bunch of friends there and they do something that's really fantastic. And they decide, they create this thing called the Olympia Academy. And then again, they're developing their own personal curriculum. They decide to get together to read the great thinkers and then discuss their ideas. Uh, they dubbed themselves the Olympia academy after, so they'd meet all night. And this just

Starting point is 00:31:53 sounds like a great night to me after the re imagine going through this and living through this with Einstein, no less, right? After the discussions, which could last all night, Einstein would sometimes play the violin, uh, less interest in that part, and then they'd occasionally climb, this is really interesting, they'd occasionally climb a mountain to watch the sunrise. We would marvel at this, so they spent all all day work, right? Then they're meeting up to go over all the ideas they read. Einstein's drinking coffee, he's playing the violin, they're smoking cigars, and they say, hey, let's go climb this mountain, and watch the sunrise. We would marvel cigars. And they say, hey, let's go climb this mountain. So we would watch the sunrise.

Starting point is 00:32:27 We would marvel at the sun as it came slowly towards the horizon and finally appeared in all of its splendor to bathe in the Alps. Then they would wait for the mountain cafe to open so they could drink dark coffee before hiking down to start work. There's two guys' names. I have no idea how to pronounce them, so I'm not going to try. These two guys would become einstein's lifelong friends and he would later reminisce with them about our cheerful academy which and this is now einstein writing he is close to this is about 50 years in the future from when this is happening because they're in their let's say early to mid-20s and now he's writing and he's in his 60s or 70s uh he would reminisce about our cheerful academy which was this is hilarious

Starting point is 00:33:03 which was less childish than those respectable ones, which I later got to know at close quarters. And so now we get to the part where his dad dies, and I think the note of myself is this may drive you. It says Herman Einstein was not destined to see his son become anything more successful than a patent examiner. Einstein felt for the rest of his life, a sense of guilt about that moment. He's talking about his father's death, which, which encapsulated his inability to forge a true bond with his father. For the first time, he was thrown into a daze, overwhelmed by a feeling of desolation. He later called his father's death, the deepest shock he had ever experienced. I was actually watching this interview with Pat Riley, and he said something had ever experienced. I was actually watching this interview with Pat

Starting point is 00:33:45 Riley, and he said something that was interesting. And I think that it speaks to the fundamental nature of these relationships, the bond between, and it moves in both directions. Obviously, it's more intentional as it moves down the generations than up, but still the bond that you have with your parents. And Pat Riley was talking about that his dad, he was 25 years old when his dad died. I think Einstein's around the same age as well. And he said something. So he said, so any success I've had after that, he didn't see.

Starting point is 00:34:14 And this is a recent interview. Maybe it's like two years with him. Pat's in his 70s, if I'm not mistaken. So this is 50 years after his dad dies and he, Pat gets choked up in this interview talking about the fact that his dad never got to see any of the success that he achieved throughout the rest of his life. So let's look at it from Einstein's perspective. You know, my father dies. And as far as he knows, all I'm ever going to be is be a patent examiner. There's nothing wrong with a normal job. Don't get me wrong. But all the remarkable achievements and the worldwide fame and the inspiration that Einstein delivered to millions of people throughout his life, his dad missed.

Starting point is 00:34:51 So I just think that it's just a little devastating when you think about it, I guess, is what I'm saying. So let's go back to this idea that I think is really, really important. This is a description of Einstein going into his miracle year. The fact that he revolutionizes and makes a large contribution to his area of interest, and yet there was nothing, nothing in his life that would predict that that was about to happen. I find this so very fascinating. Up until then, Einstein had published five little noted papers. They had earned him neither a doctorate nor a teaching job. And this is a remarkable sentence. Had he given up theoretical physics at this point, the scientific community would not have noticed. That's a crazy sentence. There was no, I guess, as I'm about to read the next section to you, this is the most common parallel to what Einstein did in 1905 is what Isaac Newton did in 1666. So it says,

Starting point is 00:35:43 there was no sign that he was about to unleash a remarkable year the like of which science had not seen since 1666 when Isaac Newton holed up at his mother's home to escape the plague, to develop calculus, an analysis of light spectrum, and the laws of gravity. This is Einstein on where his ideas come from.

Starting point is 00:36:02 I guess not just, I don't think it just applies to him. He's speaking in general. A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way, but the intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience. I heard Elon Musk on a podcast say something similar one time where it's like, where do you get most of your ideas? And he says, it sounds cliche, but it's usually in the shower. And he's like, it's not actually happening in the shower it's just i'm receiving and you know he thinks of his brain like a computer so he's like i'm just receiving uh last the download of last night's

Starting point is 00:36:32 calculations or something like that i thought it was funny uh this is why people associate einstein with the atomic bombs even though he did not really play much of a role um at least specifically um he is obviously mentioned and he'll forever be associated as that though. So it says his famous, probably the most famous formula of all time, E equals MC squared. It says energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light. The speed of light, of course, is huge. Squared, it is almost inconceivably bigger. That is why a tiny amount of matter, if converted completely into energy, has an enormous punch. So after his miracle year, a few years after, he's going to wind up

Starting point is 00:37:12 eventually getting and spending the rest of his life in academia. Although a lot of the jobs he gets, essentially, they're just paying him to think. In many cases, he doesn't have teaching responsibilities or any administrative responsibilities, not that he'd want them anyways. But this is really the reason I'm reading this section to you is because since the fact that we do need other humans to collaborate with other humans to be successful in the world, that really sales is the most important job. Not only selling yourself, but selling your ideas. And Einstein was penalized for his inability to do so. There's this conversation happening between one of Einstein's colleagues and a father. I'm just going to read the names

Starting point is 00:37:49 are not important. I'm going to read the substance of the letter. Einstein had no understanding how to relate to people and had been treated by the professors with outright contempt. They've had a bad conscience over how they treated him earlier. The scandal is being felt here, not only in Germany, that such a man would have to sit in the patent office this is before he gets starting the job offers and the main point here is that people less talented than einstein but with better people skills got the opportunities first i think that clearly demonstrates to us this is not a part of life that we can skip over that we have to work on our people skills we saw this with warren buffett warren buffett winds up taking all these um in the

Starting point is 00:38:28 in the two biographies i've covered with him he winds up taking dale carnegie's course on public speaking um even though he's going to be a you know investor basically running his own show though his whole career and then he takes the course and then he goes he i think he's in his mid-20s at the time and then he volunteers and gets a job teaching night teaching, investing at a nighttime like a like a college local college by his house, if I'm not mistaken. And his whole point is, is like, I need to be able to teach people my ideas and to be able to communicate with other people. Like, this is clearly a skill that I'm going to need. So he's about to transfer. He's about to end his time at the patent office

Starting point is 00:39:05 and start working for universities. But I got to tell you this hilarious story, first of all. And this book has a bunch of these hilarious stories in them, which I really found. They're probably my favorite parts in the entire book. It says, one of his last days working at the patent office, he received a large envelope with elegant sheet covered in Latin calligraphy. Because it seemed odd and impersonal, he threw it in the waste paper basket. It was an invitation to receive an honorary doctorate. So eventually he's like, no, I don't want to do that. His friend persuades him to attend like this very formal event.

Starting point is 00:39:35 And this is hilarious. A friend of Einstein's persuaded him to attend. Einstein arrived with a straw hat and an informal suit. So he stood out rather strangely, both in the parade and at the opulent formal dinner that followed. Amused by the whole situation, he turned. So this is this is happening at a Protestant, I guess, organization. And this is really funny. Amused by the whole situation. He turned to the person seated next to him and speculated about what the Protestant Reformation leader who had founded the university would say. And his name's Calvin. Do you know what

Starting point is 00:40:12 Calvin would have done had he been here? The gentleman, befuddled, said no. Einstein replied, he would have erected an enormous stake and had us all burnt for sinful extravagance. As Einstein later later recalled the man never addressed another word to me so at this point in his career he still has teaching duties so he has to give lectures and as you can imagine everything this guy does is different so even the way he lectured was different instead of prepared notes einstein used a card with scribbles on it so the students got to watch him develop his thoughts as he spoke. We obtained some insight into his working technique. We certainly appreciated this more than any stylistically perfect lecture. During one lecture, Einstein found himself

Starting point is 00:40:57 momentarily stumped about the steps needed to complete a calculation. There must be some silly mathematical transformation that I can't find for a moment, he said. Can any one of you gentlemen see it? Not surprisingly, none of them could. So Einstein continued. Well, leave a quarter of the page. We won't lose any time. Ten minutes later, Einstein interrupted himself in the middle of another point and exclaimed, I've got it. As the student later marveled, during the complicated development of his theme, he had still found time to reflect upon the nature of that particular mathematical transformation. At the end of many of his evening lectures, Einstein would ask the students who was coming to the cafe, where they would sit and talk until closing time. And before I go back to more on the way he teaches, just random advice from Einstein I thought was fantastic. To dwell on the way he teaches. Just random advice from Einstein. I thought it was fantastic. To dwell on the things that depress or anger us does not help in overcoming them. One must knock

Starting point is 00:41:50 them down alone. So this is Einstein's friend responding to some university administrators that Einstein is not actually a good teacher, which is really interesting because a few years earlier, he's being recruited from one university to another. And his students at the university that he's trying to be recruited from, they actually started a signed petition to pay Einstein more to prevent him from leaving because he was such a great teacher. So, again, the people that are actually being taught by him love it. The people that are not in his class think he's not good at it. There's probably a lesson there. As for Einstein's teaching talents, his friend provided a wonderfully nuanced and revealing description. He is not a good teacher for mentally lazy gentlemen who merely want to fill a notebook

Starting point is 00:42:32 and then learn it by heart for an exam. He's not a smooth talker, but anyone wishing to learn honestly how to develop his ideas in physics in an honest way from deep within and how to examine all premises carefully and see the pitfalls and the problems in his reflections will find Einstein a first-class teacher because all of this is expressed in his lectures which force the audience to think along. He continues, Einstein might not be right in all his theories and this is really fascinating like why why would he be wrong sometimes since he seeks in all directions one must expect the majority of the paths on which he embarks products and basically built his own path because he was really reluctant. The subtitle of his biography is The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.

Starting point is 00:43:32 So he talks about the entrepreneurial way is to immediately take a step forward. And if that feels good, take another. If not, step back. Learn by doing is a faster process. And what Yvonne is saying there and what Einstein's friend is saying is like when you're going out and you're experimenting, you're going to have, because you're going and moving all directions, some of those directions are going to be blind alleys. So let's talk a little bit about Einstein and personal relationships. One, I just got to tell you this funny, what I found part of this funny. So he's married at the time,

Starting point is 00:43:59 he's got two sons. Einstein's not the marriage type. He was never faithful. He was especially when he got super famous. He had women and affairs throughout his whole life. So he's actually going to leave his first wife for his cousin Elsa. And Elsa is going to be his second wife. And then she'll kind of turn a blind eye to the fact. I mean, he even told him she he told her that he didn't feel that humans were capable of being monogamous. But in the meantime, while they're having this affair, while he's still married to his first wife, they're writing letters. And in the letter, I thought this part was funny. Elsa sent him a long letter prescribing more exercise, rest, and a healthier diet. He responded by saying that he planned to smoke like a chimney, work like a horse, eat without thinking, and then go for walks only in really pleasant company. And so Einstein would constantly ruminate on his difficulties with personal relationships. And I think these two sentences is a good way to think about his philosophy. Personal relationships involve nature's most mysterious forces. Outside judgments are easy to make and hard to verify.

Starting point is 00:45:02 And it is while he's trying to, at at first i think he was trying to reconcile maybe okay i'll live with my my wife just so i can be with my kids um so he comes up with this contract that he delivers to her as the only way that they can cohabitate and we see kind of his like coldness that he has i mean this is i'm going to read the whole thing to you because it is wild einstein delivered a brutal ceasefire ultimatum. It was in the form of a proposed contract, one in which Einstein's cold scientific approach combined with his personal hostility and emotional alienation produced an astonishing document. And now he's giving his wife like a terms of agreement, right? And here's our ceasefire agreement.

Starting point is 00:45:40 Think of it like that. It read in full. You will make sure that my, one, that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order. Number two, that I receive my three meals regularly in my room. Three, that my bedroom and study are kept neat and especially that my desk is left for my use only. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. You will forego my sitting at home with you, my going out or traveling with you. You will obey the following points in your relationship with me. You will not expect any intimacy from me,

Starting point is 00:46:17 nor will you reproach me in any way. I can't believe he wrote something like this. You will stop talking to me if I request it. You will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it. You will not undertake to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior. He was prepared to live together again because I don't want to lose the children and I don't want them losing me. It was out of the question that he would have a friendly relationship with her, but he would aim for a business-like one.

Starting point is 00:46:47 And he wraps it up by saying the personal aspects must be reduced to a tiny remnant. So eventually, as you can imagine, that's not going to last very long. So they do wind up getting divorced. And it was really because he's going to live in, I think he's in Berlin at this time, and then she's going to go back to Switzerland. And that causes him a lot of emotional anguish because he's not going to see his kids. The prospect of parting with his children was devastating to Einstein. He became deeply emotional as he imagined life apart from his sons. I would be a real monster if I felt any other way, he said. I have carried these children around innumerable times. I play with them. I've

Starting point is 00:47:22 joked with them. They used to shout with joy when i came home now they will be gone forever and their image of their father is being spoiled einstein bawled like a little boy all afternoon and evening it was the most wrenching personal moment for a man who took perverse pride and avoiding personal moments and a good way there's there's one other sentence i want to read to you but it really is a good way to think about einstein is the fact that he was prone to resist confinement to him marriage was confining which was a state he instinctively resisted so at this point um world war one is happening he's in germany his kids are in switzerland his work the fact that he's really busy and the, that there's issues going back and forth across borders,

Starting point is 00:48:06 they're preventing him from going to Switzerland to see his kids. And so there's a letter from his oldest son, Hans Albert. And it's just a reminder, your kids don't care how successful you are. They just want your time. Hans Albert, who was turning 11, wrote him two letters designed to pull at his heart. I just think if you're coming for Easter, you're going to be here and we'll have a papa again. So throughout his life, he gets in a lot of these like debates with peers and colleagues and everything else.

Starting point is 00:48:36 And I guess not even debates, not the way we think about it, like fights. And he writes to a peer about the silliness of continuing this rivalry. Like, let's just end this dispute. And this is where we start to see that Einstein's learning the importance of building relationships. And these are quotes from this letter that he's writing to this peer. There has been a certain ill feeling between us, the cause of which I do not want to analyze. I have struggled against the feeling of bitterness attached to it with complete success. I think of you again with unmixed geniality and ask you to

Starting point is 00:49:06 try to do the same with me. It is a shame when two real fellows who have extricated themselves somewhat from the shabby world do not afford each other mutual pleasure. And that leads us to a great sentence that explains the paradox of Einstein. The stubborn patience that Einstein displayed when dealing with scientific problems was equaled by his impatience when dealing with personal entanglements. And we see his love of independence because even when he's about to get divorced from his first wife, he's fine just dating his cousin, right? And her and her family are pushing them to get married. And he says he even added a somewhat surprising promise. He would not be living with Elsa even if they got married.

Starting point is 00:49:52 Instead, he would keep his own apartment. For I shall never give up the state of living alone, which has manifested itself as an indescribable blessing, he said. So something that makes the life of Albert Einstein even more remarkable and full of crazy stories is the fact that he lived through both World War I and World War II. And this is the story I was mentioning earlier, where he's heading over to the university to see what he could do to get the deans of the college released because they were kidnapped by student revolutionaries. And so it's in this story we do see insights into what was important to him.

Starting point is 00:50:32 Basic to his thinking was that recognition of the dignity of the individual and the protection of political and intellectual freedom. When the student revolutionaries in Berlin jailed their deans, Einstein got to put this philosophy into practice. So he goes to meet with them, the chairman of these revolutionaries. The chairman greeted them and asked them to wait while the group finished hammering out their new statutes for governing the university. Then he turned to Einstein. Before we come to your request to speak, Professor Einstein, may I ask you what you think of the new regulations? Einstein paused for a moment. Some people are innately conditioned to hedge their words, to try to please their listeners,

Starting point is 00:51:03 and enjoy the comfort that comes from conforming. Not Einstein. Instead, he responded critically. I have always thought that the German university's most valuable institution is academic freedom, whereby the lecturers are in no way told what to teach, and the students are able to choose what lectures to attend without much supervision and control, he said. Your new statute seemed to abolish all of this. I would be very sorry if the old freedoms were coming to an end. That did not help his mission. The students decided that they did not have authority to release the deans. So instead, Einstein went off to the chancellor's palace to seek out someone who did. They were able to find the new German president who was perfectly willing to scribble a note ordering the release. It worked. Years later, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazis were in

Starting point is 00:51:50 power, Einstein would ruefully look back on that day in Berlin. So he's writing to his friend. Do you still remember that occasion some 25 years ago, when we went together to the Reichstag building, convinced that we could turn the people there into honest Democrats. How naive we were for men of 40. So at this point in his life, he can dedicate every single minute to just thinking and ruminating, as he says. He doesn't have teaching responsibilities. He doesn't have administrative responsibilities. And I think by examining the relationship, the second marriage he chooses to get into, it really tells us like what was important to him. And the fact is that he just wanted to outsource everything else that wasn't ruminating or working on what he wanted to work at at that time.

Starting point is 00:52:34 And that desire is manifested in the second marriage. He was pleased to be looked after as she was to look after him. She told him when to eat and where to go. She packed his suitcase and doled out his pocket money. She was protective of the man that she called the professor, even though life at his side could be her, quote, enervating, enervating and difficult, she once said. That allowed him to spend hours in a rather dreamy state, focusing more on the cosmos than on the world around him. When Einstein was in one of his periods of intense work,

Starting point is 00:53:09 Elsa recognized the need for keeping all disturbing elements away from him. She came to know from a faraway look in his eyes when he was seized with a problem, as she called it, and thus could not be disturbed. When his intense concentration was over, he would finally come down to the table for a meal, and sometimes he would ask to go for a walk with Elsa and her daughters. So I'm going to get more to this idea of this detached state that Einstein seems to use throughout his entire life. Before I get there, there's just one paragraph that's fantastic and it says, when the conventional wisdom of physics seemed to conflict with an elegant theory of his, Einstein was inclined to question that wisdom rather than his theory. And often he would have his stubbornness rewarded. James Dyson, his fantastic autobiography,

Starting point is 00:53:52 he was writing, he's like, listen, you may think I'm being cocky here or arrogant, but he's like, just remember, I'm only celebrating the virtues of a mule. And so he would preach, he'd say one of his best attributes in building the Dyson Company was the fact that he was stubborn, that he celebrated the virtues of a mule. Okay, so let's go back to this part about Einstein's detachment, because this really does describe Einstein as the person, not the famous well-known name, but as the actual person. Einstein's detachment allowed him to affect an air of amusement rather than anxiety. The whole affair is a matter of indifference to me, as is all the commotion

Starting point is 00:54:31 and the opinion of each and every human being. So he's saying I'm indifferent to the opinions of others. I will live through all of this and all that is in store for me like an unconcerned spectator. Einstein was a loner. He loved being in a group dynamic, playing music, discussing ideas, drinking strong coffee, and smoking pungent cigars. Yet there was a faintly visible wall that separated him from even family and close friends. He frequented many parlors of the mind, but he shied away from the inner chambers of the heart. There's that paradox again, right? He did not like to be constricted and he could be cold to members of his family. We've seen both examples of that so far. Yet he loved the camaraderie of intellectual companions and

Starting point is 00:55:14 he had friendships that lasted throughout his life. He was sweet towards people of all ages and classes who floated into his life, got along with staffers and colleagues, and tended to be genial towards humanity in general. As long as someone put no strong demands or emotional burdens on him, Einstein could readily forge friendships and even affections. This mix of coldness and warmth produced in Einstein a wry detachment as he floated through the human aspects of his world. And we're going to hear directly from him how he thinks about this. My passionate sense of social responsibility has always contrasted, oddly, with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and communities, he reflected. I am truly a lone traveler and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends,

Starting point is 00:56:03 or even my immediate family, with my whole heart. In the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude. His heart never bleeds, and he moves through life with mild enjoyment and emotional indifference. His extreme kindness and decency are thoroughly impersonal and seem to come from another planet. For all his kindness, sociability, and love of humanity, he was nevertheless totally detached from his environment and the human beings in it. And then it goes into how this kind of personality trait affects his work. Einstein's personal detachment and scientific creativity seem to be subtly linked. This detachment sprang from Einstein's trait of apartness,

Starting point is 00:56:46 which led him to reject scientific conventional wisdom as well as emotional intimacies. It is easier to be a nonconformist and rebel when you can detach yourself easily from others. That detachment enabled him to walk through life immersed in thought. It allowed him, or compelled him, to pursue his theories in both a single-minded and single-handed manner. And I'll end this section with a great quote from him. And so with that understanding, it's not this next quote on

Starting point is 00:57:25 Einstein on not conforming will not come as a surprise. The undignified mania of trying to adapt and conform and assimilate, which happens among many of my social standing, has always been very repulsive to me. Okay, so now we got to the point in Einstein's life where his life is going to intersect with Hitler's. And we see the same traits that he's had his whole life is non-conformism the fact that he'll speak his mind constantly he continues doing that even in the face of personal danger Hitler winds up putting a bounty on his head they wind up ransacking his both his apartment in Berlin and his vacation cottage and if he would have ever went back to to germany they definitely would have would have killed him and what what sparks this off and where where einstein really understands because two things his whole life was he was a what he called a militant pacifist he said you

Starting point is 00:58:17 know war was he he says that war is usually caused by like a biological imperative so he says um that as long as there's man, there's war. But he also said, which was interesting, that you should, the only thing that, the only like ethical thing to do is be a pacifist, which is to me kind of a disassociation where it's like, okay, well, we know that this has been existent

Starting point is 00:58:41 in our species the whole time. It'll exist in the future yet. The solution is just not to voluntarily partake in it, which I didn't understand his thinking there. But this is going to change because the threat from Hitler is so extreme. And the second part of that was even at the very beginning, he never thought that it was possible for Jews in Germany at the time to just assimilate. He winds up being friends with Fritz Haber, other famous Jewish intellectuals and scientists and everything.

Starting point is 00:59:14 And some of them went that route. They would even convert to convert religions. They would try to dress and act like other Germans. And they didn't realize that that solution was temporary and that once certain people got in power, they'll still try to kill you as well. So they wind up killing his friend for being Jewish. And it says the milestone that marked the passage of German anti-Semitism from being a nasty undercurrent to a public danger was the assassination of, I think he pronounced his name walter rathenau rathenau thought mistakenly that jews like himself could reduce anti-semitism by thoroughly assimilating as good germans so i wasn't clear i don't think i was clear with what i was trying to say einstein doesn't believe what what i'm gonna call him walter because i have no idea pronounce his name what walter just said there that jews like himself could reduce anti-Semitism by thoroughly assimilating as good Germans.

Starting point is 01:00:07 I don't think Einstein ever believed that. The best course, Walter thought, was for Jews to take public roles and become part of Germany's power structure. It was an attitude that was all too typical for assimilated German Jews. I think that's a quote from Einstein there. They seemed to have no idea that they were quote from Einstein there. assassination but not everyone felt sympathy adolf hitler called the killers german heroes for einstein the assassination proved a bitter lesson assimilation did not bring safety police warned einstein that he may be next his name appeared on a target list prepared by nazi sympathizers and yet what's surprising is even as more and more of these events start to take place

Starting point is 01:01:02 he doesn't they ask the question, why didn't he leave Berlin? And this is the best answer they can come up with. His inertia is hard to explain, but it is indicative of a change that became evident in both his personal life and his scientific work during the 1920s. He had once been a restless rebel who'd hopped from job to job, insight to insight, resisting anything that smacked of restraint. He had been

Starting point is 01:01:25 repelled by conventional respectability. So he ends up being in Berlin for like 17 years. So over those 17 years, he's changing. But now he personified it. He was no longer restless. He was comfortable. And so in 1930, 1931, he was asked, what do you think of Adolf Hitler? Einstein replied, he is living on the empty stomach of Germany. As soon as economic conditions improve, he will no longer be important. If only, right? Another quote from him that Hitler is going to change. I am not only a pacifist, I'm a militant pacifist. And then once Hitler comes to power, he changes this and he changes it for the rest of his life. He realizes, okay, there's just some threats that pacifism is just not there.

Starting point is 01:02:08 It's not a solution to that's what I was meant to mention earlier. It's like there seems to be a disconnect. He understood the biological imperative for humans to engage in war. And yet having a small percentage voluntarily opt out doesn't seem like any kind of solution for that. I was very confused. But he winds up obviously changing that idea as well. So in the early 1930s, he's going back and forth. He's traveled to he's getting recruited from everywhere. Like people want to go to Oxford and France and Italy and the United States. So he goes to the United States and he's going to accept the post at Princeton. Before I get there, though, I want to just two quick sentences for you.

Starting point is 01:02:45 This is advice to his stepdaughters. He offered her daughter some advice on how to lead a moral life. And this is fantastic. Use for yourself little, but give to others much. So he accepts this position at Princeton. This is we're in December 1932. But he's like, OK, I'm going to work in Princeton. But then half the year, a few months a year, I'm still going to go back to Europe.

Starting point is 01:03:04 And but there was he it's almost like he had a premonition based on what he was saying to other people at the time that he may never see Europe again. When Einstein left Germany in December 1932, he still thought that he might be able to return, but he wasn't sure. When they left, Einstein said to Elsa, as if it was a premonition, take a very good look at it. You'll never see it again. On January 30th, 1933, so a month after he leaves Germany to go, he's going to California, to Pasadena, to give lectures at a university. While Einstein was safely in Pasadena, Adolf Hitler took power as the new chancellor of Germany. So December, he leaves Germany. One month later, Adolf's in power. One

Starting point is 01:03:43 month later after that, at end of february brown shirts started ransacking the homes of jews things have become very clear because of hitler i don't dare step on german soil einstein wrote on march 10th einstein says this is only three months after he left right as long as i have any choice in the matter i shall live only in a country where civil liberty tolerance and equality of all citizens before law prevail. These conditions do not exist in Germany at the present time. So the very day that he's saying that, he's in the United States saying that, quote, back in Berlin, his apartment there was raided twice that afternoon by the Nazis. During the next two days, the Berlin apartment was ransacked three more times. Look how fast things change. Now, granted, there was a slow boil.

Starting point is 01:04:21 His friend had been killed almost 10 years before. But things changed very rapidly. He went from, OK, maybe I'll see Germany again to I'm never leaving. Einstein would never see it again, meaning his apartment. Einstein had begun to mute his pacifist rhetoric. This is when he starts changing, right, because he realized how big a threat Einstein is. Or excuse me, how big a threat Hitler is. He received word that the Nazis had raided his cottage under the pretense of looking for a cash or cachet of communist weaponry later they came back and confiscated his beloved boat on the pretense it might be used for smuggling and then einstein made a little joke here my summer house

Starting point is 01:04:55 was often honored by the presence of many guests he said they were always welcome none had any reason to break in and then we see another another example that Hitler was not that smart. He was a doofus. Dan Carlin, my favorite podcaster, he does hardcore history, but he has another feed called Hardcore History Addendum. And Dan has probably read, I don't know, hundreds of books on World War II. And he has one of his most interesting episodes, and I recommend listening to it. He compares and contrast he's like what he compares the quality of the german army in world war one versus german army in world war two and i think in the podcast if i remember correctly he says if you could take

Starting point is 01:05:33 the top 20 um if you would limit and say you could only put 20 of the best german generals in a room from world war one or from both or from both uh wars actually that Hitler wouldn't even get in the room that he got power through his charisma and his crazy rhetoric but as far as like his military strategy mind was not people give him a lot more credit in Dan's opinion than he was and I just call him a doofus because what he's about to do here and it's another reminder of what Charlie Munger said you need to avoid intense ideology because it turns your brain to cabbage. And so his hatred of Jews, he passes this law that the German government passed a law declaring that Jews could not hold an official position, including at the academy or at universities. Among those forced to flee

Starting point is 01:06:19 were 14 Nobel laureates and 26 professors of theoretical physics in the country. A massive, massive brain drain that you did to yourself, you doofus. Fittingly, such refugees from fascism who left Germany, and there's a list, Einstein, Teller, Bohr, Fermi, and others, helped to assure that the Allies, rather than the Nazis, first developed the atom bomb. And so that's what Einstein also said later. There's a reason that he winds up sending this famous letter to FDR, like, hey, we're hearing rumors, other physicists are telling us that Germany's trying to figure out how to harness and make atomic weaponry, we have to do it before they do. And he says later on, if he knew that Germany was unable to do so, he wouldn't have ever lifted a

Starting point is 01:06:59 finger because he was so distraught over what happens with the atomic bomb. But the fact was that the reason they couldn't develop it and that America could develop it is to some degree due to this stupid law that Hitler made taking some of the smartest, most brilliant physicists and making them run away and flee because his hatred of Jews. Avoid intense ideology. It turns your brain to cabbage hitler is a doofus here's hitler's a doofus part two max plank which is a good friend he was an old he's a few years older than um and einstein so he goes and tries to talk he's not jewish he goes and try to talk to hitler he's like we can't do this uh plank tried appealing to hitler

Starting point is 01:07:40 personally our national policies will not be revoked or modified even for scientists hitler What an absolute moron. Oh, and then I, so he's, he's, so he, he accepts the, let me go back to Einstein, by the way. So he accepts the position at Princeton. He goes back to Europe. He goes to Belgium, relinquishes his German citizenship, and visits his – his youngest son winds up suffering from mental illness. So he ends up visiting him, who's living with his first wife. Anyways, I'm telling you this because you never know what the future holds. So I want to give you two examples. This is you never know part one.

Starting point is 01:08:29 When Einstein left Zurich, he was still assuming that he would be spending half of each ensuing year in Europe. What he did not know was that this would be the last time he would see his first wife and their younger son. So while he's leaving Zurich, he's going to wind up going to England and meeting with Churchill. And there's a great sentence here I'm going to read to you. And just remember that. So that's You Never Know Part One. And we'll get to You Never Know Part Two in a minute. Let me tell you more about this Churchill thing because I find him fascinating. He took Einstein to see Winston Churchill, then suffering through his wilderness years as an opposition member of parliament. At lunch in the gardens of Children's Home, they discussed Germany's rearmament.

Starting point is 01:09:07 He is an eminently wise man, Einstein said. It became clear to me that these people have made preparations and are determined to act resolutely and soon. And I love what Isaacson writes here. It sounded like an assessment from someone who had just eaten lunch with Churchill. I love that. So before he leaves Europe for the final time, he gives a speech and really two things that he preaches his whole life is the need for freedom and solitude. And he's talking about all the stuff

Starting point is 01:09:37 that's happening in Europe right now. If we want to resist the powers that threaten to suppress intellectual and individual freedom, we must be clear what is at stake, he said. Without such freedom, there would have been no Shakespeare, no Goethe, no Newton, no Faraday, no Pasteur, no Lister. Freedom was foundation for creativity. That's a fantastic sentence. He also spoke of the need for solitude. I love this part. And sign me up if I could do this. I would love to spend my days in a lighthouse overlooking the ocean. The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. So again, let me start this over. He also spoke of the need for solitude.

Starting point is 01:10:10 The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. Give your brain time to think, right? He said, and he repeated a suggestion he had made when younger that scientists might be employed as lighthouse keepers so they could devote themselves undisturbed to thinking. And now you never know part two. He did not think he would be away for Europe for long. He planned to spend another term at Oxford the next spring. But although he would live for another 22 years, Einstein would never see Europe again. Okay, so now Einstein's in America. This is where we get some fantastic anecdotes from his life.

Starting point is 01:10:52 When shown his office at Princeton, he was asked what equipment he might need. A desk, a table, a chair, paper and pencils, he replied. Oh yes, and a large wastebasket so I can throw away all my mistakes. He soon acquired an image of being a kindly and gentle professor, distracted times but sweet who swandered who wandered around lost in thought helped children with their homework and rarely combed his hair or wore socks his slightly disheveled appearance was partly an assertion of his simplicity and partly a mild act of rebellion and this is hilarious i have reached an age when if someone tells me to wear socks, I don't have to, he told a neighbor. And so it's here where he lived the rest of his life, the remaining 21 years of his life. Another funny Einstein story. Peter Buckley happily spent time driving Einstein around,

Starting point is 01:11:37 and he later wrote down some of his recollections in extensive notebooks. They provided a delightful picture of the mildly eccentric but deeply unaffected Einstein in his later years. Peter tells of driving his convertible with Einstein when it suddenly started to rain. Einstein pulled off his hat and put it under his coat. Einstein explained, you see, my hair has withstood water many times before, but I don't know how many times my hat can. Here's a funny absent-minded professor story. Occasionally, he would take rambling walks on his own, which could be dicey. One day, someone called the institute and asked to speak to a particular dean. When the secretary said that the dean wasn't available, the caller hesitantly asked for Einstein's home address. That was not possible

Starting point is 01:12:20 to give out, he was informed. The caller's voice then dropped to a whisper. Please don't tell anybody, he said, but I am Dr. Einstein. I'm on my way home, and I've forgotten where my house is. Another funny, absent-minded story. At one dinner where Einstein was being honored, he got so distracted that he pulled out his notepad and began scribbling equations. When he was introduced, a crowd burst into a standing ovation, but he was still lost in thought.

Starting point is 01:12:47 His assistant caught his attention and told him to get up. He did, but noticing the crowd standing and applauding, he assumed it was for someone else and he heartily joined in. His assistant had to come over and inform him that the ovation was for him. So one of his friends and mentees, I guess, wrote a biography out on him while he was still alive. And I thought this sentence was interesting. It's a reminder that doggedness is where all the magic happens. His tenacity in sticking to a problem for years and returning to the problem again and again. This is the characteristic feature of Einstein's genius, he wrote. So he's visited by some fellow physicists at his home they convince him that hey there's these rumors we need to spur the u.s government into action uh this is before i said this is

Starting point is 01:13:32 before um america at this time was quote-unquote still neutral um and this is the letter that he writes fdr which he's einstein later says was his biggest regret but he also hedges that regret saying that you know if germany would have gotten the bomb like we would have been in big trouble so he says the world's most famous scientist was about to tell the president united states that he should begin contemplating a weapon of almost unimaginable impact that could unleash the power of the atom for the time being america stayed neutral or at least it did not declare war the country did however began to rearm and to develop whatever new weapons might be necessary for its future involvement i actually did a bonus episode it's on a book called freedom's forge that entire book is about this rearmament of america and the industrial it was actually recommended by the

Starting point is 01:14:13 founder of stripe patrick coulson um patrick he's got an amazing mind i i've mentioned to you several times i'd go to patrick coulson.com he's got a it's very simple website but it's just very interesting he's got book recommendations on there patrick coulson.com. He's got a very simple website, but it's just very interesting. He's got book recommendations on there. PatrickColson.com forced us fast, which is why I think I would surmise that Patrick was interested in reading Freedom's Forge because he's obsessed with how he can get large organizations to move unbelievably fast. So he keeps historical examples on his website of groups of individuals throughout history moving rapidly towards a goal. But anyways, that book, I don't know what, it's not numbered, so it's a bonus, you just have to look for it in the archive, but that entire book is about how quickly America's industry

Starting point is 01:14:54 was reorganized to produce weapons of war. There's a bunch of formidable individuals and people to learn from, including Henry Kaiser, Bill Knudsen, all kinds of people, Vannevar Bush, that are in that book. It was really, really interesting. So this is a little bit about the Manhattan Project, which I'm obviously listening to on that audiobook I told you about earlier. More than two years after Einstein and his colleagues had urged attention to the possibility of building atomic weapons, the United States launched the super-secret Manhattan Project, and this is funny why he knew,

Starting point is 01:15:25 Einstein knew what was up, because so many fellow physicists had disappeared to obscure towns, Einstein was able to surmise that the bomb-making work he had recommended was now proceeding with greater urgency. So it's important to note, though, Einstein was never officially asked to be a part of the Manhattan Project, but he did indirectly assist when asked. Vannevar Bush, I got a book on my nightstand. I'm eventually going to read and turn it into a podcast.

Starting point is 01:15:50 Because this guy, if you read any kind of history of the United States or American business anywhere around World War II, he might be mentioned more than anybody else. When he died, they said no American had greater influence on the growth of science and technology than B. Neville Bush. Not only that, he was the founder of Raytheon, an engineer, a scientist. He wrote books. He worked, obviously, for the government and ran the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

Starting point is 01:16:18 He was the first person to actually see Claude Shannon for who Claude Shannon was before Claude Shannon was who Claude Shannon was, if that makes sense. He hires him to run that, what was that, differentiational, I can't remember the name of the early analog or part analog computer that he hired Claude Shannon to run. Anyways, he's a fascinating, fascinating person. So he appears in this book as well. Vannevar Bush, the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, which oversell the Manhattan Project, contacted Einstein and asked for his help on a problem involving the separation of isotopes that started chemical traits. Einstein was happy to comply. Einstein.

Starting point is 01:16:52 Oh, and so this is what Vannevar was saying. Bush wanted to get Einstein more involved in the project, but the U.S. government, including the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover at the time, they had multiple decade investigation into Einstein. Hoover, that crazy nut job, was convinced that Einstein was a spy and a communist. So said Bush wrote, I wish very much that I could place the whole thing before Einstein and take him fully into confidence. But this is utterly impossible in view of the attitude of people here in Washington who have studied his history. So this is where we get into Einstein's relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Starting point is 01:17:32 And one of the weirdest things that, in my opinion, that Einstein, for his whole life, he preached this idea of like a supernatural, supra-natural, I think is the word he used maybe, like one world government to end war and essentially like other if for somebody completely obsessed with freedom and independence he's like well countries have to give up some of their sovereignty to like this one organization

Starting point is 01:17:53 that can stop humans uh like desire for violence and oppenheimer's like this is a ridiculous idea einstein um so he says he did challenge einstein's argument for a full-fledged world government. The history of this nation up through the Civil War shows how difficult the establishment of a federal authority can be when there are profound differences in the values of the societies it attempts to integrate. So that's Oppenheimer. His whole point is that you can't even do this in one country. Now you're going to combine hundreds of countries with all kinds of profound differences? It's not going to happen.

Starting point is 01:18:25 More on their relationship. He and Oppenheimer viewed each other with a mixture of amusement and respect, which allowed them to develop a cordial, though not close, relationship. Years later, Oppenheimer provided another telling description of Einstein. He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness, there was always in him a powerful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn. That is a great observation from Oppenheimer on Einstein. That's fantastic. Oh, this is, I have to bring to you one of Einstein's most famous quotes. Einstein was asked what the next world war would look like. This is after World War II.

Starting point is 01:19:03 He says, I don't know how the third world war will be fought, he answered. But I can tell you what they will use in the fourth. Rocks. So after World War II, in America, there's this spread of McCarthyism. Einstein's being, this is where Einstein will not shut up. And he not that he should have, by any means. So he constantly would let people even use his name. because he just did not believe they should sacrifice anything he loved the first amendment which he talks about and he thought that uh the mccarthyism that was taking

Starting point is 01:19:34 over the united states at this time was you're you're willing to give up civil liberties to try to chase out the few communists that actually don't even have any power anyways so then people like oh he must be a communist go back to where you came from kind of thing. That instinct in human nature that we see repeats over and over again. But anyways, he's being blasted in every newspaper for encouraging adherence to free speech and independent thought. But you can't do that during McCarthyism, right? And so Bertrand Russell comes to his defense

Starting point is 01:19:57 and he winds up writing because he didn't like what the New York Times was saying about Einstein. So he writes them a letter and he's pointing out the difference. Like there's a difference between ethical and legal. And just because something's a law doesn't mean it's ethical. You should always go to what's ethical, right? Among the more amusing letters came from his friend, Bertrand Russell. You seem to think that one should always obey the law, however bad the philosopher wrote to the New York Times. I am compelled to suppose that you condemn George Washington and hold that your country ought to return to allegiance to her gracious majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. As a loyal Briton, I, of course,

Starting point is 01:20:30 applaud this view, but I fear it may not win much support in your country. Einstein wrote a Russell a thank you letter lamenting all the intellectuals in this country down to the youngest student have been completely intimidated. And so he felt it was his duty as an older person with a lot less to lose to speak up because other people were afraid to and in einstein's point he's like you guys have completely misunderstood he says einstein believed he was being a good rather than a disloyal citizen he had read the first amendment and felt that upholding its spirit was at the core of america's cherished freedom which he loved that's why he wanted to live in america uh even when his opinions caused outrage in the media he he wouldn't stop sharing them. He took a boyish American glee at his freedom to say whatever he felt. I have, I can't, I can barely

Starting point is 01:21:15 pronounce English. I can't pronounce French. Hold on. Okay. I'll try to say that. I have a quote from Einstein here. I have become a kind of enfant terrible. I'm going to define that for you. A person who's unconventional or controversial behavior or idea shock, embarrass or annoy others. He's not I've become. You've been like that your whole life, buddy. I become a kind of enfant terrible in my new homeland due to my inability to keep silent and to swallow everything that happens. Besides, and this is the most important part of why i'm reading the section two besides i believe that older people who have scarcely anything to lose ought to be willing out willing to speak out on behalf of those who are young and are subject

Starting point is 01:21:52 to much greater restraint it's not he's much older this is uh he he had stomach issues his whole life so we're very close to to him dying and i want to he's got some reflections on on how to go about doing that process and and how he thought about life which is interesting and i want to he's got some reflections on on how to go about doing that process and and how he thought about life which is interesting so i want to i want to talk about his last year about we're close to his last year of life he knew that the aneurysm in his abdominal aorta should soon prove fatal and he began to display a peaceful sense of his own morality when he stood at the graveside and utilized the physicist rud Leidenberg, the words seemed to be ones he felt personally. Brief is this existence, as a fleeting visit in a strange house.

Starting point is 01:22:37 The path to be pursued is poorly lit by a flickering consciousness. He seemed to sense that this final transition he was going through was at once natural and somewhat spiritual. The strange thing about growing old, he said, is that the intimate identification with the here and now is slowly lost. One feels transposed into infinity, more or less alone. Einstein made it to his 76th birthday. A few days later, he learned of the death of Besso, this is one of his friends, the friend he had met six decades earlier upon arriving as a student in Zurich, and they were friends their entire life. As if he knew he only had a few more weeks, Einstein ruminated on the nature of death and time in the condolence letter he wrote to Besso's

Starting point is 01:23:23 family. He has departed from the strange world aysm indeed explodes. So he knows he's dying. And this is his response to impending death. A group of doctors convened at his home the next day, and after some consultation, they recommended a surgeon who might be able to repair the aorta. Einstein refused.

Starting point is 01:23:58 It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share. It's time to go. I will do it elegantly. And to wrap this all up, any true understanding of Einstein's imagination and intuition will come from how his mind worked. The explanation that Einstein himself most often gave for his mental accomplishments was his curiosity. As he put it near the end of his life, I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. Curiosity has its own reasons for existing, he once explained. One cannot help but be in awe

Starting point is 01:24:33 when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. There was an aesthetic to Einstein's thinking, a sense of beauty. And one component to beauty, he felt, was simplicity. He had echoed Newton's dictum, nature is pleased with simplicity. He would aim for simplicity in beauty. And beauty for him was simplicity. And that is where I'll leave it. For the full story, read the book. If you buy the book using the link that's in the show notes on your podcast player,

Starting point is 01:25:07 you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. That is 187 books down, 1,000 to go. And I'll talk to you again soon.

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Founders - #187 Albert Einstein

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