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He was beyond a brilliant person, of that is no doubt. And not in anyway trying to take away from that fact, reading the following excerpt from the article..;

He was beyond a brilliant person, of that is no doubt. And not in anyway trying to take away from that fact, reading the following excerpt from the article..; "[..] von Neumann both worked alongside and collaborated with some of the foremost figures of twentieth century science. He went to high school with Eugene Wigner, collaborated with Hermann Weyl at ETH, attended lectures by Albert Einstein in Berlin, worked under David Hilbert at Göttingen, with Alan Turing and Oskar Morgenstern in Princeton, with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen and was close with both Richard Feynman and J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos." ..makes me do wonder how many of the accomplishments he made were due to his own brilliance, or due to both it and the stimulating environments he kept finding him self in. For my own parts, I see a big difference in my own output, and the quality of that output, when getting the opportunity to interact with high caliber people (knowledgable, emotionally intelligent, inquisitive and open) on a regular basis.

jonplackett 6y ago
These things are a virtuous circle. The more brilliant you are, the more brilliant people want to hang around, and the more brilliant you become. And loop.
Tuna-Fish 6y ago
A lot of those particularly accomplished people he interacted with specifically pointed him out as exceptional. For example, from this article about his eidetic memory: "One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how A Tale of Two Cities started. Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  Another: > “There was a seminar for advanced students in Zürich that I was teaching and von Neumann was in the class. I came to a certain theorem, and I said it is not proved and it may be difficult. von Neumann didn’t say anything but after five minutes he raised his hand. When I called on him he went to the blackboard and proceeded to write down the proof. After that I was afraid of von Neumann” — George Pólya The nature vs. nurture argument has its merits in general, but sometimes nature just produces a complete freak. Being surrounded by geniuses probably isn't that valuable when you're head and shoulders above even them.
  - CWuestefeld 6y ago
    The nature vs. nurture argument has its merits in general, but sometimes nature just produces a complete freak. Possibly less of a freak relative to his surroundings, compared to the difference relative to the rest of us: Here's some argument from both sides of the nature v nurture debate (from https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-considered-as-hungarian-high-school-science-fair-project/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-consid... ) The locality here suggests some "nature": the Manhattan Project was led by a group of Hungarian supergeniuses, all born in Budapest between 1890 and 1920. These included Manhattan Project founder Leo Szilard, H-bomb creator Edward Teller, Nobel-Prize-winning quantum physicist Eugene Wigner, and legendary polymath John von Neumann, namesake of the List Of Things Named After John Von Neumann. Or, maybe it's not just localized gene pool, but an experience common to all of them? (from same esay) The coincidences actually pile up beyond this. Von Neumann, Wigner, and possibly Teller all went to the same central Budapest high school at about the same time, leading a friend to joke about the atomic bomb being basically a Hungarian high school science fair project. [...] In this case, the guy was Laszlo Ratz, legendary Budapest high school math teacher. I didn’t even know people told legends about high school math teachers, but apparently they do, and this guy features in a lot of them. There is apparently a Laszlo Ratz Memorial Congress for high school math teachers each year, and a Laszlo Ratz medal for services to the profession. There are plaques and statues to this guy. It’s pretty impressive.
- bobcostas55 6y ago
  Fermi to one of his PhD students: "You know how much faster I am in thinking than you are? That's how much faster von Neumann is compared to me."
- metalliqaz 6y ago
  My favorite, from Edward Teller: “von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us.”
pjmorris 6y ago
"Work with the smartest people who will work with you" has become one of the pieces of career advice I give myself.
clairity 6y ago
it's all mythmaking, a custom as old as time and the ancestor of our modern obsession with promotion. exceptional people aren't born so much as constructed to tickle our imagination and ego. every culture makes myths but obsession is where it becomes problematic. we must have idols, so we will make them opportunistically rather than leave them to organic discovery. there's enough randomness and manipulation in the people we remember historically to not put too much faith in the objectiveness of any of these constructions. that's not to say that no credit is due them, but that it's overwhelmingly likely overstated, per this obsession. also note that any story title with a name prominently featured is simply going to be subjective (practically by definition).
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

jonplackett 6y ago

These things are a virtuous circle. The more brilliant you are, the more brilliant people want to hang around, and the more brilliant you become. And loop.

Tuna-Fish 6y ago

A lot of those particularly accomplished people he interacted with specifically pointed him out as exceptional. For example, from this article about his eidetic memory: "One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how A Tale of Two Cities started. Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
Another: > “There was a seminar for advanced students in Zürich that I was teaching and von Neumann was in the class. I came to a certain theorem, and I said it is not proved and it may be difficult. von Neumann didn’t say anything but after five minutes he raised his hand. When I called on him he went to the blackboard and proceeded to write down the proof. After that I was afraid of von Neumann” — George Pólya The nature vs. nurture argument has its merits in general, but sometimes nature just produces a complete freak. Being surrounded by geniuses probably isn't that valuable when you're head and shoulders above even them.
- CWuestefeld 6y ago
  The nature vs. nurture argument has its merits in general, but sometimes nature just produces a complete freak. Possibly less of a freak relative to his surroundings, compared to the difference relative to the rest of us: Here's some argument from both sides of the nature v nurture debate (from https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-considered-as-hungarian-high-school-science-fair-project/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-consid... ) The locality here suggests some "nature": the Manhattan Project was led by a group of Hungarian supergeniuses, all born in Budapest between 1890 and 1920. These included Manhattan Project founder Leo Szilard, H-bomb creator Edward Teller, Nobel-Prize-winning quantum physicist Eugene Wigner, and legendary polymath John von Neumann, namesake of the List Of Things Named After John Von Neumann. Or, maybe it's not just localized gene pool, but an experience common to all of them? (from same esay) The coincidences actually pile up beyond this. Von Neumann, Wigner, and possibly Teller all went to the same central Budapest high school at about the same time, leading a friend to joke about the atomic bomb being basically a Hungarian high school science fair project. [...] In this case, the guy was Laszlo Ratz, legendary Budapest high school math teacher. I didn’t even know people told legends about high school math teachers, but apparently they do, and this guy features in a lot of them. There is apparently a Laszlo Ratz Memorial Congress for high school math teachers each year, and a Laszlo Ratz medal for services to the profession. There are plaques and statues to this guy. It’s pretty impressive.
bobcostas55 6y ago
Fermi to one of his PhD students: "You know how much faster I am in thinking than you are? That's how much faster von Neumann is compared to me."
metalliqaz 6y ago
My favorite, from Edward Teller: “von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us.”

pjmorris 6y ago

"Work with the smartest people who will work with you" has become one of the pieces of career advice I give myself.

clairity 6y ago

it's all mythmaking, a custom as old as time and the ancestor of our modern obsession with promotion. exceptional people aren't born so much as constructed to tickle our imagination and ego. every culture makes myths but obsession is where it becomes problematic. we must have idols, so we will make them opportunistically rather than leave them to organic discovery. there's enough randomness and manipulation in the people we remember historically to not put too much faith in the objectiveness of any of these constructions. that's not to say that no credit is due them, but that it's overwhelmingly likely overstated, per this obsession. also note that any story title with a name prominently featured is simply going to be subjective (practically by definition).

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]