
When Einstein Tilted at Windmills - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/when-einstein-tilted-at-windmills
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duncancarroll
Very well-written article. I had no idea Ernst Mach had a mystical experience
that he based his theories on. Very interesting.

“On a bright summer day in the open air, the world with my ego suddenly
appeared to me as one coherent mass of sensations,” he later wrote. He felt,
in that moment, there was no reality sitting “out there,” independent of his
sensations, and likewise that there was no self sitting “in here,” independent
of its sensations. He grew certain that there could be no real difference
between mind and matter, between perceiving subject and perceived object.
“This moment was decisive for my whole view,” he wrote.

~~~
UweSchmidt
Wish I had a circle of academically awesome, out-of-the-box thinking friends.
Does such a thing even exist? All the smart people I know are busy working
hard, no one is coming up with wild stuff "on a bright summer day in the open
air" any more it seems.

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
Yes, it definitely does.

The problem is that it happens in little cliques of 2-3 people, and it's hard
to meet a new clique. (I mostly do intoxicated at parties.)

I've been thinking of trying to organize "Work in Chalk" parties or something
next summer, where we can all go hang out and work on our theories in sidewalk
chalk at the park. (I used to do homework this way in uni.)

It's just hard to guage how many people would be interested and how to reach
them.

~~~
judahmeek
Create a Meetup for interested parties, perhaps? Then you can have small
groups of participants pare off each month for weekly meetings.

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SideburnsOfDoom
Interesting. The theories of relativity have philosophical implications, and
it's interesting to see that they didn't come only from mathematics and
experiment, but also from reading and debating philosophy.

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Pigo
Very interesting read, thanks for sharing. It seems the people of that era had
a whole perspective we no longer share, or at least no longer share with each
other. Will articles in the future convey the inspiration and humanity of
modern ground-breakers, their relationships with each other, the connections
they had to each other? I truly hope so.

~~~
xutopia
A lot of great ideas come from collaborations between people.

Thinking Fast and Slow was written by one man but he talks about the great
walks he took with his friend which he claims was the best work he ever did.

A married couple figured out X-rays and revolutionized medicine.

Jobs and Wozniak revolutionized computing.

It takes two to tango... very few people are alone in their ventures. The most
successful people are those who can surround themselves well.

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kafkaesq
The lessons of this story are hugely important. Coming of age in a state of
hyper-anxiety about our careers (as many of us do), we're used to thinking of
our heroes role models as paragons of not just of efficiency and discipline,
but above all, clarity of purpose and direction. In reality, quite often the
reverse is true.

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Declanomous
>[Besso's] weakness is his truly insufficient spirit of decision

That sounds like a slightly Victorian way of describing ADHD. The entire quote
is basically a paraphrasing of something every intelligent kid with ADHD has
probably heard a million times, "You are so smart, why don't you just do your
work?"

~~~
sweetjesus
an anxiety disorder can increase the difficulty of making decisions, appearing
as a trait like "perfectionism"

~~~
Declanomous
ADHD has a high co-morbidity with anxiety disorders.

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andrewflnr
It's a shame Einstein couldn't see the work being done now in constructing
space-time from quantum entanglement relationships. I wonder if he would have
accepted it.

~~~
Ma8ee
I haven't heard of that. Where can I learn more?

~~~
andrewflnr
This is a decent overview: [http://www.nature.com/news/the-quantum-source-of-
space-time-...](http://www.nature.com/news/the-quantum-source-of-space-
time-1.18797) (edit: depending on how much you already know, you may need to
skim the early parts)

There was another paper where (IIRC) they flat out derived basics of geometry
from entanglement, but I don't remember what it was called. Hopefully someone
else knows...

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sangnoir
I understand that when telling a story, adding details and texture is
necessary to immerse the reader, but parts of this article broke my immersion

> Besso was short with narrow, pointed features and a thick pile of coarse
> black hair on his head and chin.

That's a fairly objective description - there's even a photo of him. Moving
along.

> ...Einstein had a look of cool detachment. Besso had the look of a nervous
> mystic.

Come on! We need an "artist's impression" disclaimer here.

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dmfdmf
Or... Einstein, the reluctant Kantian.

