The private and public lives of Albert Einstein

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-public-and-private-lives-of-albert-einstein-p-d-smith/

by okfine • 6 years ago

67 34 6 years ago

the-tls.co.uk

durpkingOP• 6 years ago

should private lives be made public post morteum?

hyfgfh• 6 years ago

How else we could shatter the illusion that heroes exist?

earthtourist• 6 years ago

Real heros exist. But only children believe they are infallible.

As the pretend hero, Malcolm Reynolds, said "It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of a son of a bitch or another."

keiferski• 6 years ago

Why is shattering this illusion a good thing? Especially if a 'false', heroic impression of someone inspires you to achieve great things, or act more virtuously, that you otherwise wouldn't have done.

There's a difference between 'hero worship' and 'hero inspiration', IMO. The difficult part is getting rid of the former while not destroying the latter in the process.

andrewfromx• 6 years ago

i read these rules he had for this 1st wife years ago "A. You will make sure:

1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order; 2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room; 3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.

B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:

1. my sitting at home with you; 2. my going out or travelling with you.

C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:

1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way; 2. you will stop talking to me if I request it; 3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

D. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior."

http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-o... and I try and be nicer.

RcouF1uZ4gsC• 6 years ago

The truth is you would not want to be married to the vast majority of “great” people in history.

xscott• 6 years ago

The fact he had to make a rule for her not to belittle him in front of the children makes me think I wouldn't want to be married to his wife either. We're only seeing one half of the picture here, but she doesn't sound like a saint.

claudiawerner• 6 years ago

This is frankly one of the most absurd and saddest things I've read - and I'm surprised to see it attributed to Einstein.

kick3• 6 years ago

Not only was he abusive to his first wife, he then got married to his cousin, and almost proposed to her daughter. Beyond that, he had a great deal of affairs.

Einstein may have been smart, but he was a really awful person.

trianglem2• 6 years ago

Absurd? Really?

ThrowawayR2• 6 years ago

High intelligence and educational achievement has nothing to do with morality. Some of the worst human beings I have ever encountered were very successful and competent engineering professionals.

darkerside• 6 years ago

This is pretty standard stay-together-for-the-kids stuff

dougmwne4• 6 years ago

This is taken out of context somewhat, so I'll offer it just to try to keep things balanced. This appears to come from Walter Isaacson biography on Einstein. At the time, Einstein's first marriage had deteriorated and they were already living apart. This was an offer to move back in together for the sake of their children. His wife didn't accept these terms and they divorced in 1919.

Also we're talking about 100 years ago in Berlin. It's a bit perilous to judge their relationship by our modern standards. I would say things have changed vastly for the better. I shudder to think how people in 100 years would view my lifestyle.

watwut• 6 years ago

Nah, it was not normal by standards of 100 years ago either.

Edit: the "it was different time" is popular retort, but it rarely takes into account actual customs and realities of the time back. People just tend to assume that whatever someone else criticizes was unopposed standard back at the time, because it would feel good and was convenient. Societies back at time were as complicated as ours, often had strong standards of behavior - which just like in ours was often not followed in practice or lead to problems.

They were not "just like us except worst". Case in point, even if intra-family violence was way more common, both against kids (I don't mean light spanking I mean actual sever abuse) and women, it was criticized and seen as wrong too (and as such meant to be in-family secret).

throwaway_pdp093• 6 years ago

Not sure I agree. There were a couple of books I picked up as presents, they were reprints of a book ~100 years old, called something like 'advice for husbands' and 'advice for wives', something like that. They were ~2/3rds the same advice, and of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and frankly most if it was surprisingly sensible and relevant today (some still has the assumption that the man is in the superior position, and some is a bit painful, but perhaps not as much as you'd think).

OK, found it https://raffertysrules.blog/2011/04/18/donts-for-husbands-do...

Extract, make of it what you will:

Advice for Wives

Don’t interpret too literally the ‘obey’ of the Marriage Service. Your husband has no right to control your individuality.

Don’t let your husband feel that you are a ‘dear little woman’, but no good intellectually. If you find yourself getting stale, wake up your brain.

Don’t keep your sweetest smiles and your best manners for outsiders; let your husband come first.

Don’t grumble because his idea of work differs from yours. If he works hard at anything, let him do it his own way, and be satisfied.

Don’t refuse to see your husband’s jokes. They may be pretty poor ones, but it won’t hurt you to smile at them.

Don’t allow yourself to get into the habit of dressing carelessly when there is ‘only’ your husband to see you. Depend upon it he has no use for faded tea-gowns and badly dressed hair, and he abhors the sight of curling pins as much as other men do. He is a man after all, and if his wife does not take the trouble to charm him, there are plenty of other women who will. [Ouch!]

Advice for Husbands

Don’t refuse to get up and investigate in the night if your wife hears an unusual noise, or fancies she smells fire or escaping gas. She will be afraid of shaming you by getting up herself, and will lie awake working herself into a fever. This may be illogical, but it’s true.

Don’t be surprised, or annoyed, or disappointed, to find, after treating your wife for years as a feather-brain, that you have made her one, and that she fails to rise to the occasion when you need her help.

Don’t belittle your wife before visitors. You may think it a joke to speak of her little foibles, but she will not easily forgive you.

Don’t refuse your wife’s overtures when next you meet if you have unfortunately had a bit of a breeze. Remember it costs her something to make them, and if you weren’t a bit of a pig, you would save her the embarrassment by making them yourself.

Don’t chide your wife in public, whatever you may feel it necessary to do in private. She will not easily forgive you for having witnesses to her discomfiture.

Don’t call your wife a coward because she is afraid of a spider. Probably in a case of real danger she would prove to be quite as brave as you.

trianglem2• 6 years ago

What’s wrong with this? That’s want he wants from life and found a willing wife to do it.

cafard• 6 years ago

I'm not sure why we should care. The private lives of Freud, Jung, and perhaps Russell may be of interest because their work was bound up in telling others how to live. Einstein did a certain amount of that--though I think more in the large than in the small--but he did not achieve fame for his thoughts on peace, socialism, etc. Rather his thoughts on matters of conduct became interesting because of the fame earned through physics.

gdubs• 6 years ago

For what it’s worth, I thought Andy Serkis really captured some of the complexity of Einstein’s character in the movie “Einstein and Eddington” — contrasts with the typical characterization of Einstein as the cuddly goofball of pop culture, and paints him as a human with flaws.

roundabout4ce• 6 years ago

But...the real (big) Question was: "Why is there no spaceship with 'front-drive'?", and speaking in terms of "Reisegefühl" (um in other words, something like the feeling you have during traveling) heck - damned Einstein - Why does it need mass for acceleration #=!*%?? (-:

The private and public lives of Albert Einstein

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