Now the whole journey of Einstein from patent examiner to physics superstar makes sense to me.
He simply did not have the intellectual aptitude required for the patent business. Suddenly I don't feel so bad about becoming a math professor after failing accounting school.
He saw so many bad ideas on his patent job that he had some good ones of his own
Now I am imagining Einstein inventing general relativity as a shorthand to deny yet another perpetual motion machine patent.