4 ms·
Tangential: If anyone ever struggles to put theory to practice, this is a great example of the "Great Man Theory" promulgating itself. It checks all of the box
by AndrewKemendo 7y ago
Tangential: If anyone ever struggles to put theory to practice, this is a great example of the "Great Man Theory" promulgating itself.
It checks all of the boxes for the "Radical outlier who changes everything by dint of genius and hard work" while barely acknowledging the circumstances, environment, timing etc...
Gifted from birth
Non-traditional and "Troubled" socially
Ahead of peers and mentors
Focused and Driven
Overcame institutional/structural resistance
This is not meant to detract from Oppenheimer's immense contributions, to the contrary. I thought it was something worth keeping in mind as I read the article - especially considering that Oppenheimer himself would spread credit to others and attempt to dismiss the idea that the Manhattan Project was a "One man show."
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wavefunction 7y ago>dent of genius Sorry, the pedant in me (well, me) must point out it's "dint."
- AndrewKemendo 7y agoThanks for the edit!
- firethief 7y agoThat great discoveries are so often made independently by multiple people when their time has come suggests that if the theory is right, Great Men are a dime a dozen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery
- Ididntdothis 7y agoI often wonder if the same applies to business. Maybe Jobs, Gates or Bezos didn't make such an outsized contribution but maybe they were able to concentrate on themselves what other people would have done too. Maybe just a little later or differently. Makes me wonder about Einstein. Were other people working on relativity too?
- zamadatix 7y agoPlenty of people were working on the issues that relativity sought to resolve but I've never heard of any simultaneous discovery of relativity. Many of the other stuff Einstein worked on had multiple "discoveries", I remember reading some about Brownian motion before.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- glitchc 7y agoAbsolutely yes on the Einstein question. Check out Bohr, Lorentz and Poincare to start.
- joycian 7y agoAnd Hilbert actually beat him to the final equation.
- jorgenveisdal 7y agoActually, he didn’t. I looked into it about six months ago. Einstein clearly got there first. Essay: https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/einstein-and-hilberts-race-to-generalize-relativity-6885f44e3cbe https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/einstein-and-hilberts-ra...
- oska 7y agoGates and Bezos absolutely dispensable. Both just very aggressive opportunists. Gates actually suffocated innovation, not fostered it. The only one of the three you name where you could make a case for them making a real difference would be Jobs (and I say that even though I am a non-fan).
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoThere was a task that needed to be accomplished and nobody cared about who or how, just that it get done. Such was the nature of the times. Many men like Oppenheimer rose to greatness as a result. This pattern seems to repeat itself whenever a society finds itself under existential threat. When society needs great men great men rise to the occasion.