Love this. Also think it's worth noting that this idea of "be an Einstein in your spare time" could easily be misread as advice to be a genius hermit in your spare time, because that's how he is often thought of. [Edit: Or maybe, people wouldn't be hermits exactly, but they would just share findings infrequently with random known experts who don't have the time to fully follow the project, or they would share publicly for feedback from a whole host of randos who don't understand the whole vision, idk]
The truth is that Einstein had a highly educated and capable confidante in his wife, Mileva Einstein-Maric. While the extent of her contributions will never be known, they did have lengthy and frequent correspondence, and it seems naive to think this made no difference in Einstein's passion or conclusions, at least the speed with which he reached them. (I would appreciate any thoughts on how much you think Mileva contributed to his success in his spare time! I have read selections from each of their biographies, and some journalism online, but I'm not really clear on what role she played)
If true, this would mean, to model Einstein, you'd need at least one capable person who is closely attached and confided in regularly about your progress and difficulties, ideally from beginning to end for a project
Again I like the piece and recommendation :) I certainly don't mean to imply Einstein is any worse a role model, just to clarify what I think emulating him might look like.
You did this while founding TopScore, right? I think it's a good idea and I've always kind of thought this way.
Love this. Also think it's worth noting that this idea of "be an Einstein in your spare time" could easily be misread as advice to be a genius hermit in your spare time, because that's how he is often thought of. [Edit: Or maybe, people wouldn't be hermits exactly, but they would just share findings infrequently with random known experts who don't have the time to fully follow the project, or they would share publicly for feedback from a whole host of randos who don't understand the whole vision, idk]
The truth is that Einstein had a highly educated and capable confidante in his wife, Mileva Einstein-Maric. While the extent of her contributions will never be known, they did have lengthy and frequent correspondence, and it seems naive to think this made no difference in Einstein's passion or conclusions, at least the speed with which he reached them. (I would appreciate any thoughts on how much you think Mileva contributed to his success in his spare time! I have read selections from each of their biographies, and some journalism online, but I'm not really clear on what role she played)
If true, this would mean, to model Einstein, you'd need at least one capable person who is closely attached and confided in regularly about your progress and difficulties, ideally from beginning to end for a project
Again I like the piece and recommendation :) I certainly don't mean to imply Einstein is any worse a role model, just to clarify what I think emulating him might look like.
Well said! I started out on the Curie path but decided the Einstein path was better for me. Derek Sivers is a big advocate for this path too