Never Give Up | "Einstein" By Walter Isaacson Part 2

When we hear the name Albert Einstein we think of a grey-haired genius who is holed up in some laboratory conducting experiments and coming up with crazy, but genius theories of the universe.

What's lesser known about Einstein is that he lived a relatively normal lifestyle. Not exactly normal, but not as far from normal as one is led to believe by all the stories people tell.

Einstein is synonymous with the word genius, but before 1905, Einstein was little-known to any community, let alone the scientific community.

In 1905, he was working the lowest position at a Swiss patent office. His job was to read over patent filings for 8+ hours a day.

Now that's the Einstein that nobody thinks about. Most people aren't even aware that this version of Einstein ever existed. Nobody expected that he would go on to change the entire world of physics and ultimately, change the way that we all view the universe around us.

“Up until [1905], Einstein had published five little-noted papers. They had earned him neither a doctorate nor a teaching job, even at a high school. Had he given up theoretical physics at that point, the scientific community would not have noticed, and he might have moved up the ladder to become the head of the Swiss Patent Office, a job in which he would likely have been very good indeed.”

Imagine that.. Einstein couldn't even get a job teaching basic high school classes. He considered his job at the Swiss Patent Office to be a miracle. He had applied to dozens of teaching positions and been rejected from all of them. Most of them didn't even respond to his letters of application.

Imagine if Einstein had just given up? He easily could have thrown the towel and just worked the ladder at the Patent Office and never given a second thought to science or philosophy. The world would have been worse off, if he had quit prematurely.

“But physics was poised to be upended again, and Einstein was poised to be the one to do it. He had the brashness needed to scrub away the layers of conventional wisdom that were obscuring the cracks in the foundation of physics, and his visual imagination allowed him to make conceptual leaps that eluded more traditional thinkers.

The breakthroughs that he wrought during a four-month frenzy from March to June 1905 were heralded in what would become one of the most famous personal letters in the history of science.”

That excerpt that describes why Einstein was poised to be the one to upend physics is one of my favorite parts. It gives you a glimpse into the factors that created Einstein. The factors that shaped the way he thought and conducted himself.

Einstein grew up in a way that caused him to develop a certain skill for challenging firmly held beliefs. In fact, some of his most famous quotes are about creativity, individuality and fighting against authority and the beliefs that people try to place on others.

He loved to question reasoning and to keep questioning. He was that kid who would ask why 5 times and then say that there's a better way to do that.

I think we all need more of that in our lives. We all need that ability to question authority and firmly held beliefs. Especially in the world we live in today where politics and the media have taken on this sort of demonic form. Now more than ever do we need thinkers like Einstein to upend the entire community and innovate towards the future.

That's one of the many reasons why I love Steem and the crypto/blockchain community as a whole. The thought-leaders and developers in this community are sort of "descendants" of Einstein in my opinion. They're questioning the system and the way that things are being done. From social media and content (Steem) to currency (Bitcoin) to artificial intelligence, smart contracts... the list goes on.

This is the most innovative space to be in (in my opinion) and I couldn't be happier that I get to play some role in all of this. Albeit a very small role of being an observer and a user.

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We, as part of the Steem and blockchain communities should never give up. Like Einstein, we should continue to question firmly held beliefs of what's possible and we should continue to press forward with our ideas.

HF20 was a great lesson to me and I think to all of us. It was a lesson in the possibilities of the future for this blockchain. While the road is likely to have many more bumps in it, we must all continue to press forward and work hard. What we're creating here is world-changing.