[HN Gopher] The Night I Met Einstein (2021)
___________________________________________________________________
The Night I Met Einstein (2021)
Author : superasn
Score : 45 points
Date : 2022-07-18 20:45 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.rd.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.rd.com)
| la64710 wrote:
| With great intelligence comes great empathy.
|
| Sadly many do not understand that and cannot close the perceived
| gap between the two.
| ThrowawayR2 wrote:
| > " _With great intelligence comes great empathy._ "
|
| I have met more than my fair share of talented engineers, some
| with stacks of patents, who would happily stab colleagues in
| the back for their next promotion.
|
| Even within the hallowed halls of academe, it is well known
| that competition is vicious for grants and tenure and abuse of
| graduate students is commonplace.
| oumua_don17 wrote:
| >> happily stab you in the back for their next promotion
|
| That means you met intelligent people who did not imbibe good
| virtues & values in life, hence their attitude was not free
| from cunningness. Hence they did not possess any great
| intelligence!
| Koshkin wrote:
| Well, it is not a secret that intelligence has evolved in
| the animal world as a weapon of survival.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Empathy is the ability to sense other people's emotions.
|
| Despite common usage, it doesn't preclude using that ability
| to crush those people if useful...
| smugma wrote:
| It seems as if compassion and empathy are orthogonal to
| brilliance. I hear enough stories that fall on both ends of
| the spectrum (tech founders appear to lean asshole, but
| amongst Nobel prize winners, I feel it's more balanced) that
| I don't think there's any correlation between the two.
| gumby wrote:
| > I hear enough stories that fall on both ends of the
| spectrum (... amongst Nobel prize winners, I feel it's more
| balanced)
|
| I think that if you have a gong like that you _can_ relax
| some of your insecurities. The only nobelists ( &
| equivalent) I have known* have all been supportive in
| person, though some of them did not have a reputation for
| it.
|
| The reason I put "can" in italics is that there's no
| guarantee: some people are simply jerks and for some people
| a great honor will simply increase their impostor syndrome.
|
| * don't get the wrong idea: I'm not talking about a huge
| number.
| a11r wrote:
| I am in the middle of listening to _Einstein: His Life and
| Universe_ by Walter Isaacson and would highly recommend this
| biography to anyone interested in more.
| gnicholas wrote:
| People talk about the singular focus that some famous people have
| on their interlocutors. When someone this famous is so intently
| focused on you, that must come across as incredibly thoughtful
| and even magnanimous (given all the other people they could be
| talking to).
|
| I have wondered if these people were always this way, or if they
| developed the habit after becoming famous. I've also wondered
| whether the singular attention would be received in the same way
| if it were coming from someone who was not as famous.
|
| It's obviously better than talking to someone who is constantly
| glancing around the room, but could it ever bee seen as creepy or
| weird? I can't imagine this fellow would have followed just
| anyone up into an upstairs room with a phonograph player!
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| _W O W_.
|
| I had no idea that Einstein was so compassionate, so aware of how
| other people were reacting to things, and found so much _joy_ in
| opening things for other people. Amazing.
| gumby wrote:
| He was apparently quite kind to poor old Godel while they were
| at the IAS.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-07-18 23:00 UTC)