How brilliant was Einstein? | Andrew Strominger and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Andrew Strominger is a theoretical physicist at Harvard.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[LexClips]

Guest bio: Andrew Strominger is a theoretical physicist at Harvard.

[samirkarki]

Yea, even a genius like Einstein, who thought about blackholes for 25 years, wrote a paper only to get it completely wrong. If it was someone with low self esteem, they would have felt really really bad, and might doubt their own worth and abilities. This is a good reminder to not be too hard on yourself, everyone makes mistakes, even someone like Einstein.

[ramisamman]

He was jobless for 9 years and didn't go crazy. That's impressive

[lovetownsend]

The coolest thing on Einstein is his work was so beyond the science in 1904 that scientist considered him a philosopher more than a scientist. Imagine begin so smart that other geniuses in your field think you're crazy.

[williamthomas]

One reason why Einstein is so beloved and held high as a genius is because of his own self-awareness. He was never not able to admit when he was wrong. He also was a tremendous philosopher who was open to deep questions about the universe.

[michaelb]

Lex is working hard here to hold the audiences hand to help understand Andrew’s analogy on coordinate transfer anticipating the viewers internal questions. To quote Einstein “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”.

[qbtc]

The title is misleading. All Andrew talked about was how confused Einstein was and some of his mistakes which take away nothing from his greatness.

[WilliamtheWilliam]

Einstein, what scares me about him is how we've had noone as brilliant as him since him. The man's tools was a pencil and paper.

[andrewash]

The idea that scientists have no memory of their prior confusion is one of Bruno Latour’s great themes and points toward the meaning of scientific theory generally.

[wade]

I love that Lex always asks the followups that I also want more detail on and makes sure the explanation is at a relatable conceptual level

[amyclea]

A very stimulating discussion. More like this.

[vebjsand]

It seems obvious in retrospect, but imagine someone coming out right now with an essentially complete model for quantum science. It’s fairly compareable. We have much more tech, much more computing power, and not to mention the internet, i.e all knowledge is easily obtainable and it’s easy to collaborate compared to Einstein’s time.

[devalsrivastava]

The best example of self-confidence is Albert Einstein. He was not getting any job after graduation, his family lost trust in him but he knew who he was the genius.That much trust upon self is very rare these days.

[xxxs]

It's fascinating the scientific advancement that happened in the early 20th century

[chrisv]

In one sense Einstein is probably correct as black holes as described by mathematics are probably not real, an infinitely small object with infinite density probably cannot actually exist. Whenever we encounter infinity it just means our current math and knowledge has hit a wall. Of course I'm not saying black holes aren't real, just that how we describe the singularity is probably not a reflection of reality.

[mattcorcoran]

Lex looks like he’s filming his reactions separately. He’s so funny 😂

[unodos]

Good additional insight building off of this... after a discovery, you have trouble understanding the confusion you had before the discovery. But what if the discovery isn't as accurate as you think? You stop empathizing with your old confused self, you are so certain after the discovery, that adjusting might prove incredibly difficult. And thus, the challenge that some academics have with considering something that pecks at their discovery.

[CrunkMiens]

"...In the Mind of the Time of Einstein..." is some great alliteration there Lex!

[AlexOfCR]

Einstein didn't come up with the speed limit, it was observed by two scientists (who's names escape me) circa 50 years before his time. What Einstein did was to take their observation seriously and ponder the consequences of the speed limit whereas all his contemporaries assumed the observation to have been faulty.

[David_]

I think Einstein liked to cast doubt to motivate other scientists to prove him wrong. It was a challenge.