4 ms·

Could be, at the same time I would argue that those who had disproportional impact almost by definition thought very differently from others (defying convention

Could be, at the same time I would argue that those who had disproportional impact almost by definition thought very differently from others (defying convention is tough: imagine what is must feel like to question the multi century reign of Newton as a lowly patent clerk). Very few minds have done the work to come within reach of the conclusions that these guys have been able to draw. From there I suppose it ought to be possible to approximate the likelihood of a Eureka moment probabilistically. I'd be interested whether future scientific progress is so complex that it cannot be attributed to a single mind (some indicators are rising numbers of contributors for influential papers).

TeMPOraL 9y ago
I think this is precisely what 'sillysaurus3 is arguing against. Studying relativity a bit closer in its historical context shows that most relevant groundwork for the theory was already laid down by other scientists. Einstein might have been the first to connect those dots and publish, but I seriously doubt that he was magically smarter than all the other interested people. That is, if he didn't do it, someone else would, probably at most few years later.
- raattgift 9y ago
  He wrote three groundbreaking papers in 1905; Special Relativity was just one of them. He continued writing groundbreaking papers for decades after that. Even his unsuccessful investigations produced interesting insights. Sure, "someone else" may have eventually written down much of the content of any one of these three papers, but probably not all three and not all in the same year. Notably, he could have won the Nobel prize for any of those important 1905 papers (and did so for the photoelectric effect, rather than Special Relativity). In the same year he also had more than twenty other papers published, several of which were intersting, and all of which are eclipsed by the famous one on relativity. In objectively quantifiable terms, the count, rate, and accuracy of his published papers over the years is simply exceptional. A bit more detail here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823796
ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
I was hoping someone would mention Newton. I think if we measure Genius by (time of discovery before that discovery would have happened without the individual), Newton would rank as the greatest Genius in human history.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

I think this is precisely what 'sillysaurus3 is arguing against. Studying relativity a bit closer in its historical context shows that most relevant groundwork for the theory was already laid down by other scientists. Einstein might have been the first to connect those dots and publish, but I seriously doubt that he was magically smarter than all the other interested people. That is, if he didn't do it, someone else would, probably at most few years later.

raattgift 9y ago
He wrote three groundbreaking papers in 1905; Special Relativity was just one of them. He continued writing groundbreaking papers for decades after that. Even his unsuccessful investigations produced interesting insights. Sure, "someone else" may have eventually written down much of the content of any one of these three papers, but probably not all three and not all in the same year. Notably, he could have won the Nobel prize for any of those important 1905 papers (and did so for the photoelectric effect, rather than Special Relativity). In the same year he also had more than twenty other papers published, several of which were intersting, and all of which are eclipsed by the famous one on relativity. In objectively quantifiable terms, the count, rate, and accuracy of his published papers over the years is simply exceptional. A bit more detail here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823796

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago

I was hoping someone would mention Newton. I think if we measure Genius by (time of discovery before that discovery would have happened without the individual), Newton would rank as the greatest Genius in human history.