How to Use Occam’s Razor Without Getting Cut
Occam’s razor is one of the most useful, (yet misunderstood,) models in your mental toolbox to solve problems more quickly and efficiently. Here’s how to use it. *** Occam’s razor (also known as the …
Albert Einstein
Focused and Diffuse: Two Modes of Thinking
Our brains employ two modes of thinking to tackle any large task: focused and diffuse. Both are equally valuable but serve very different purposes. To do your best work, you need to master both. As …
Too Busy to Pay Attention
Alan Lightman, the physicist who brought us The Accidental Universe, has also written several works of fiction, including Einstein’s Dreams, presented as dreams Einstein might have had while working …
Albert Einstein on Education and the Secret to Learning
In 1915 Einstein, who was then 36, was living in wartime Berlin with his cousin Elsa, who would eventually become his second wife. His two sons, Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard “Tete” Einstein were …
Sifting the Essential from the Non-Essential
Few things have more of an impact on your life and career than the ability to zero in on what really matters. Most information is irrelevant. Most of your time is wasted. Knowing what to ignore is the …
Albert Einstein to Marie Curie: Haters Gonna Hate
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” — Marie Curie *** “Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science …
The Simple Problem Einstein Couldn’t Solve … At First
Albert Einstein and Max Wertheimer were close friends. Both found themselves in exile in the United States after fleeing the Nazis in the early 1930s, Einstein at Princeton and Wertheimer in New York. …
Einstein: The World As I See It
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer …
Einstein on The Essential Feature of Productive Thought
“Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” *** There is a view, to which we subscribe that a lot of innovation and creativity comes from the combination of worldly …
How a Scientist Gets Things Wrong
Albert Einstein, writing to fellow physicist Hendrik Lorentz in 1915, describes how a scientist gets things wrong: 1. The devil leads him by the nose with a false hypothesis. (For this he deserves our …