John von Neumann: The Man from the Future

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-man-from-the-future

by rendall • 4 years ago

9 2 4 years ago

astralcodexten.substack.com

jleyank• 4 years ago

I did not finish th article, but I did not see a direct mention on the presence of parental or early-life teacher involvement as a catalyst. Feynman always worked his dad into his stories as a basis of his personality and quest for seeing under surface image. I had a critical teacher to whet interest in a subject, and the timing to be exposed to computers very early. If the Martians trace to a particular time and place, credit their environment for allowing them to indulge their genius and protecting/encouraging them while doing so.

Such people are statistical rarities. When a handful clump together, it’s unbelievable. Imagine what we’re missing when it occurs in non fertile soil.

rendall• 4 years ago

You might be onto something. This part is in the article:

Every night, [John's father] Max would gather John and his two brothers around the dinner table. First, he would discuss his own day - the cases he had argued, the financial deals he had negotiated, any problems that had been on his mind. Then the children would present on what they had been reading about. The whole von Neumann family - father Max, mother Margit, and the three sons - would have protracted arguments on Henrich Heine’s poetry, or the trajectory of anti-Semitism in Europe, or the paradoxes of God’s omnipotence. Sometimes leading intellectuals would attend and join in, lured by Max’s continually growing wealth and reputation.

John von Neumann: The Man from the Future

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