I'm reading a fantastic biography of Einstein done by Walter Isaacson, who's become one of my favorite writers. I've read his other biographies of Leonardo Da Vinci and Steve Jobs. Albert Einstein is a logical follow-up for me!
I'm about 100 pages in and I'm fascinated by the life that Einstein led.
When we think about Einstein, we typically imagine the crazy grey-haired scientist who is holed up in his lab and working on experiments all alone.
It turns out that Einstein actually led quite a normal life. An oddly normal life. It's very humanizing to read about him.
We like to think of him as some sort of genius-deity - someone who's unaffected by the same things that we are. Almost an unemotional robot who can just work on physics and other problems in the universe.
Here's a little story that I found fascinating:
To give you some context, Albert Einstein was looking for a job. He had applied for dozens of teaching jobs over a few years time after graduating from the Zurich Polytechnic and he was having trouble getting hired.
Imagine that, Albert Einstein was unable to get a job as a teacher!! People were outright rejecting his applications. To make some money, he worked part-time as a private tutor to young students.
A friend of his told him of a potential job working in a patent office. It was a pretty low in the rung job and far from glamorous. Imagine your typical cubical job and it wouldn't be far from this one that was offered to Einstein.
Before he accepted the job, Einstein ran into an old acquaintance who happened to already be working at the patent office. The person complained that the job was boring and that Einstein was actually getting the lowest position in the entire office.
Einstein's view on this situation is what I love about this story:
"Einstein was unfazed, 'Certain people find everything boring,' Einstein told Marić. As for the disdain about being on the lowest rung, Einstein told her that they should feel just the opposite: 'We couldn't care less about being on top!'"
Certain people find everything boring. Certain people always look for the negatives in every situation, rather than deciding to enjoy the opportunities that lay in front of them and look for the even greater opportunities that lie beyond.
Rather than complain and moan about the boring job that he has been given, Einstein is extremely happy about it. In fact, he is overcome with joy to finally have a real job so that he can build a life with his soon-to-be wife, Marić.
When it comes time for him to work in the patent office, Einstein actually leverages the opportunity of being low on the ladder to work quickly through his day job (doing a whole day's work in about 2-3 hours) and then spending the rest of the workday on scientific pursuits.
He would look back on his time in the patent office as being one of the most creative and productive times of his life.