[pmohun]

It was his willingness to spend inordinate amounts of times working out answers to problems himself, instead of trusting the work of others. He explains in his autobiographies that this gave him a “different set of tools” than other people, which allowed him to tackle problems that others couldn’t or wouldn’t because they seemed insignificant.

[closedloop129]

That's something I have also read about Donald Knuth. In his first years, he spent additional time on solving all available mathematically problems for a class until he became much more proficient in it than his peers.

[kamaal]

Starting to work on the syllabus of a class before your peer students can do definitely has lots of benefits, I've tried it before, and it has always landed me ahead of my peers.

You can also use this in other areas of life. Its better to start on the next challenge even if no one is offering you an opportunity.

[lupire]

That only works well if you are brilliant enough to solve all available problems in less than 24x7x365hrs/year.

[melony]

He's also a human calculator with a natural aptitude for arithmetics that far outstrips most of his less distinguished peers. Most people forget that Feynman was really good at calculations and math. I think for famous physicists who were not talented mathematicians, Einstein (whom allegedly had all the math done by his wife Mileva Maric, he wasn't bad at math, just not exceptionally brilliant at it the way most of his contemporaries were) and Faraday were the exceptions, not the norm.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/22/science.research

Many of Einstein's contemporaries had some contribution to applied math

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solvay_conference_1927....

[whatshisface]

He wasn't born a "human calculator," he practiced at it.

[4gotunameagain]

People are born with predispositions. He practiced, but also had a gift.

Even if Donald Knuth spent double the time running than Usain Bolt, he could never even get close to 10 seconds.

If any Kardashian spent double the time studying maths than Donald Knuth, they would probably still not be able to solve a simple first degree differential equation.

[Dig1t]

Mileva did not do all his math for him, and if you know something I don’t, at the very least I think that needs a source.

Einstein’s reputation for being bad at math is an almost comical misconception, almost certainly due to his few known quotes about struggling with the mathematical toolbox he was using, but he was far and away more advanced in math than any of us mere mortals.

[Maro]

I agree that the sweeping statement "had all the math done by his wife Mileva Marić Einstein" is too much. Also, they got divorced at some point and Einstein didn't stop working then; although they were married in the miracle year.

A good reference is Appendix B, titled "The role of Mileva Einstein" in the excellent book "Who cares about Particle Physics?" by Pauline Gagnon (particle physicist at CERN/ATLAS). Here is a 4-page version, "The Forgotten Life of Mileva Marić Einstein" also by Pauline Gagnon:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.08888

I read the appendix by chance when I read the book itself, and I have to say it's fascinating. The book is about particle physics at CERN in general, and there's a late chapter about diversity at CERN, to which this is an appendix. The whole book is great, I read it as a refresher, as I left the field of (particle) physics many years ago. Based on the evidence presented, it is possible that some (how much?) of Einstein's most famous work was a collaboration between Maric and Einstein, and they simply didn't include her in the credits, because it was easier to get published as a single male author (and they needed the money).

More links:

- https://home.cern/authors/pauline-gagnon

- https://www.amazon.com/Who-Cares-about-Particle-Physics/dp/0...

[boppo1]

> Based on the evidence presented, it is possible that some (how much?) of Einstein's most famous work was a collaboration between Maric and Einstein, and they simply didn't include her in the credits, because it was easier to get published as a single male author (and they needed the money).

Honestly, seems kinda revisionist.

"Hey we discovered radically exciting things that fundamentally change how we understand the universe. It's literally going to be called miraculous. Too bad the sexists just won't publish it if there's a woman's name on it. Also we'll never bother to correct the record once the status of the discoveries is established. Oh well, all credit to Einstein then!"

[pdm55]

Can we tell what collaborations (with Maric, with Grossmann, etc.) were occurring by examining Einstein's notebooks? https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/Zurich_Notebook/ What about the Born-Einstein letters, what collaborations are mentioned there? And as always "no man is an island", and we all advance our knowledge by discussing our ideas with others, but it is often left to an individual to ensure that all the pieces of the research puzzle fit together, that "all bases are covered". That was my limited experience from when I worked in a research setting. I had to think through the solution fully. Sure, I got help from others, but it was up to me to become the "world expert", as one's supervisor would say.

[melony]

Try this one

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/030642290085349...