Life Lessons From Albert Einstein | Hacker News Reader

Life Lessons From Albert Einstein

dumblittleman.com

69 pointshendler18 comments

> “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

This is the one I personally struggle with the most. It is highly coupled with your perception of your personal comfort zone. For example, if I think I'd be happier if I went out and met more people - but I'd rather sit on the couch tonight - that's partial insanity - you will always be afraid of doing those things you are too lazy or afraid (note: lazy and afraid is worse combination) to do.

And if you were say to actually drag yourself to the event but completely went into wallflower mode when getting there, you are proving partial insanity again (e.g. being non-social again) with the added weight of 'why did I bother'.

How to break this vicious cycle? Basically you have to suck it up and be social, not be seeking any particular form of reaction - e.g. goal is literally to introduce yourself/meet people not to have a deep conversation with them. Letting go of attachment to outcomes but initiating so there can be a potentially positive outcome. Really, it goes back to #3 Being Present with whoever you are with.

It is only insanity if you expect different results. I dunno about you, but I pretty much know what happens if I just sit on my ass all night.

On the plus side, I often find that when I get out of my comfort zone, it can have amazing results.

A quote from that I keep close to my heart: "Courage is not the absence of failure, courage is acting in spite of fear." (Carly Fiorina)

In your case, if I were you, after I get off my ass to a networking event, I'd be thinking, "hell, I didn't get off my ass just to come here and be in wallflower mode. For better or worse, I don't care if I look stupid, I don't care if I'm afraid, I'm going to go talk to somebody."

Meh.

1 “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

Curiosity is an important trait, and I'm sure Einstein had it. He did, however, also have a very significant talent.

2 “It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Perseverance is important, but if you honestly believe you can achieve anything by trying harder, there's no limit to what you can't do. (HT Despair)

The rest of the advise is sound, however, I can help but think that boiling these pieces of wisdom down to fortune cookies is orthogonal to the very point Einstein was making when he said those things.

0. Put your child up for adoption and get on with what you really love in life!

Interesting factoid ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieserl_Einstein )

I upvoted this because I think this sort of thing can be relevant to understanding a great person. (Gandhi's family life always struck me a classic example, but that's another story.) However, after looking at the Wikipedia page fierarul posted, I see no evidence that Einstein put a child up for adoption. That is, it's known from his letters that there was a daughter, but no one knows what happened to her.

Hey, it worked for Rousseau!

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.

The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."

            -- Albert Einstein "Why Socialism?"

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

This one is essential. Goes right along with recent HN discussions on "effort shock" - not understanding how hard things really are, or what it takes to be successful. The "game" that we are shown as kids isn't an accurate representation of real life, and oftentimes we must learn the real rules for ourselves.

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

That is gold!

It's all relative.

Create Value “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Classic. How many entrepreneurs create value and in the process made themselves rich instead of focusing on money first

> “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Is this a reference to quantum mechanics?

don't listen to experts outside the area of their expertise.

What makes you think that Einstein has no expertise in being successful/ leading a great life ?.

Back in the 60's, some amateur astronomers observing Venus with a homebuilt telescope and ultraviolet filters discovered that the clouds on Venus had a four-day rotation period.

They submitted their work to a journal of planetary studies, but it was rejected with this comment: "the four-day rotation is theoretically impossible, and shows how foolish the work of the inexperienced amateur can be."

In 1974 Mariner 10 few past Venus and confirmed the atmosphere does indeed rotate every four days, much faster than the solid planet beneath.

Who was the expert who rejected the very good work of the amateurs? Carl Sagan.

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