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Interesting seeing the name Robert Richtmeyer in there. He was a family friend and had some great recollections on Stan Ulam among many others, including Von N

• laichzeit0 10y ago
  Did he ever comment about Von Neumann's memory? There are many claims that he could read a book once and recall the whole book perfectly down to the page even years later.
  • dannylandau 10y ago
    I remember him mentioning that the two were having a conversation where Von Neumann was writing out a complex mathematical formula, at which time he was interrupted by a phone call that lasted about 30min, and upon his return picked up writing out the formula as if there was no interruption. Robert found was just amazed at his powers of thought! So many anecdotes that he related about all the prominent scientists involved during the Manhattan Project.
  • posterboy 10y ago
    Do you believe that?
    • laichzeit0 10y ago
      The thing is Von Neumann is an extreme outlier in terms of human mental ability and achievement. - liked to read books whilst driving - on his death-bed, reciting, by heart and word-for-word, the first few lines of each page of Goethe's Faust - always had a stack of books next to his bed that he was reading It seems plausible that if he could retain everything he read he would want to read as much as possible. I haven't come across any first-hand account of people explicitly saying this was bullshit, other than skepticism from people who never knew him. There's always going to be skepticism on outlier events. Here's an interesting post about this memory: http://overweeninggeneralist.blogspot.co.za/2011/11/john-von-neumann-hungarianmartian.html http://overweeninggeneralist.blogspot.co.za/2011/11/john-von...