Einstein: His Life and Universe: by Walter Isaacson

After buying Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
 in 2013 I started reading it in 2016. That’s a long gap! Just like “The imitation Game by Andrew Hodges” it’s a fantastic book.  While reading I revisited lots of topics from my high-school like entropy, Avogadro number, Quantum physics, nuclear fission/fusion to name a few and off- course love! So I will start about the things I realized reading 550 pages blue paperback:-

I have Sky-Blue color Paperback!

Everyone struggles

Being the synonym of excellence Einstein struggled a lot in his initial days. From the inception he was the "Square peg in a round hole”. Often misunderstood by lot of people even after doing fantastic job in research he worked as a clerk in Swiss patent office. He was not very happy as he knew he was overqualified for the job and kept doing it for some time to pay his bills. He struggled to explain “theory of relativity” to lot of people and critics took it as a fluke for while. Instead of all odds he kept going on and later on his life became a force to reckon with. 

 

Albert Einstein at his lectern at the patent office in 1904.

Decisions

He was against compulsory military training in Germany so he renounces his German citizenship to avoid it. For the next four years, he was not a legal citizen of any nation. Einstein was against the rote system in education so he obtained Swiss citizenships. Later in his life he took US citizenship  based on his charisma

 He married “Mileva Maric” against the wish of his mother. They married January 6, 1903 and were divorced on February 14, 1919. Their romance is very well documented and so is their divorce. 

Albert and Mileva Einstein, 1912

Escalation

Escalation

Darkest secret of Einstein’s life was about their first daughter born without a wed-lock. No one knows about her till today and no record of her has ever been found. It’s still unknown why it was done. 

Often taking decisions is a difficult choice and Einstein tool lot of decisions in his life-span. It made a lot of ripples in his life and eventually all the resultant of all the decisions defined his persona.  

   

Art of wearing different hats

There is a quote by -Robert A. Heinlein which says:-

Einstein was a Nobel-Prize winner as we all know it but later in life he got involved in politics and was also nominated to for Israel presidency in 1952.

 He declined it saying "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions"

Einstein had fantastic networking and it won him lot of friends both in scientific, political and artistic sphere of life. 

Everyone get screwed:-

Everyone gets screwed and it’s not a exception if you are Albert Einstein. His theory of relativity was the pillar on which Atom bomb was invented and after the infamous incident of Hiroshima and Nagasaki he was blamed for the catastrophe publically.  

Because of his rebellious attitude he was considered a spy by FBI al and at a moment in time he was part of list of people to be assassinated by Nazi’s.

Time Magazine Cover

Love happens

Yes, love happens and even Einstein was hit by cupid multiple times in his life. After the divorce with Mileva he fell in love with his cousin Elsa and married him. He  alsofell in love with Russian Spy named Margarita Konenkova. 

Margarita Konenkova – Einstein's last love

His famous note on the book sums it up all “Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do, but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.” — Albert Einstein

 

Veridct 

 “An interesting life is one filled with controversial successes punctuated by occasional and spectacular failures.” No one knows it better than Albert Einstein. Read to know more!