7 ms·

If you want to get into the mind of Tesla a bit I highly recommend "My Inventions", his sort of autobiography where he described how his mind worked. He spent a

If you want to get into the mind of Tesla a bit I highly recommend "My Inventions", his sort of autobiography where he described how his mind worked. He spent a lot of time developing his imagination at a young age and "traveling" in his head. I was surprised to read that he would visualize entire designs in his imagination and then go through prototypes and iterations several times before bringing that idea into the physical world. http://www.tfcbooks.com/e-books/my_inventions.pdf http://www.tfcbooks.com/e-books/my_inventions.pdf My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain.

irrational 5y ago
This reminds me of Albert Einstein's thought experiments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_thought_experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_thought_experimen...
totetsu 5y ago
If this weren't HN someone might attempt to draw a humorous connection between this passage and his reported lack of need of romantic relationships.
- Judgmentality 5y ago
  Well you brought it up via apophasis instead. Apophasis: the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it (as in "we won't discuss his past crimes")
ptr2voidStar 5y ago
Fascinating! Thanks for the book recommendation.
jdc0589 5y ago
commenting to get back to this later. very interested to read that.
gfody 5y ago
Tesla's bio is fascinating I highly recommend Wizard: https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Times-Nikola-Biography-Genius/dp/0806539968 https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Times-Nikola-Biography-Genius/... ..that whole period is wild for inventors I'm surprised there aren't more movies about it!
mrtnmcc 5y ago
Doesn't everyone do this? I remember at the age of five finally learning to control my falling dreams at night, to be able to freeze in the air and eventually fly (the Matrix scene definitely resonated later). This was the beginning of a continuous exercise of imagining things more and more exactly and controlling that imagination. Now as an engineer, I spend most of my time staring at a wall simulating and refining designs in my head. As Tesla notes, they are usually accurate. The most interesting cases however are when I can't quite be sure what will happen. Building those projects are some of the most exciting and often most valuable work. Besides imagination, simulating on a computer is useful, but more to explain an imagined design to others. Occassionaly, when simulations scale to a certain level of parallel interaction (like neural networks), those simulations take on the character of reality which may defy imagination. At least until enough experimentation and observation develops intuition.
- Monroe13 5y ago
  > Doesn't everyone do this? I wish I had the ability of imagination like you describe. I don’t think I have full-on aphantasia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia) but I definitely can’t run simulations in my mind.
  - gfody 5y ago
    we're really lacking in ability to effectively describe the qualia of "imagining" - it could be that some people visualize internal fidelity more closely matching the raw signal of their optic nerve and others have an entirely separate way of experiencing. for myself I can say that I mentally visualize just fine but it is nothing at all like actual vision. if you asked me how is it different then this is where words fail. it's entirely different but I can't describe how.
    - yboris 5y ago
      My inner imagination pales in comparison to the visualizations I experience on LSD. This experience sets up a nice contrast of what my mind is capable of VS what I generally am able to do when imagining. I'm eager to try spending time imagining / visualizing things as I used to do when I was a kid, but it's hard to find time with all the exciting projects and busy life stuff in the way.
ksaj 5y ago
Nikolo Paganini was known to practice violin without actually touching one. Same goes for composing. He (allegedly at least) used to conceptualize in his mind how his hands would move for each part, and would master those movements, even though he wasn't actually doing them. It greatly played into his reputation of having made a deal with the devil, because people only very rarely heard him practice or compose - he just went ahead with new content seemingly out of the blue, but in reality put a lot of work into it. It sounds very similar to what Nikola Tesla often did.
kaba0 5y ago
Interesting coming from a guy who did not even believe in electrons.
sbmthakur 5y ago
I know that's quite but isn't it similar to running Socratic method in your head?
kashyapc 5y ago
Ten years ago I've read Margaret Cheny's (a mathematician) biography of Tesla. Unfortunately, I don't recall anything much besides a vague, pleasant memory of being impressed by Tesla's inventive mind and Cheny's research for the book. I wonder if anyone here has read Cheny's bio and any other biographies of Tesla to compare and contrast. I see a couple of them out there (1) Wizard by Marc Sefir; (2) Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes.
amai 5y ago
Given the design it seems he could "only" simulate 2d fluids in his mind. I wonder if the design would also work when extended to 3d, because 3d turbulence is very different from 2d turbulence.

irrational 5y ago

This reminds me of Albert Einstein's thought experiments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_thought_experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_thought_experimen...

totetsu 5y ago

If this weren't HN someone might attempt to draw a humorous connection between this passage and his reported lack of need of romantic relationships.

Judgmentality 5y ago
Well you brought it up via apophasis instead. Apophasis: the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it (as in "we won't discuss his past crimes")

ptr2voidStar 5y ago

Fascinating! Thanks for the book recommendation.

jdc0589 5y ago

commenting to get back to this later. very interested to read that.

gfody 5y ago

Tesla's bio is fascinating I highly recommend Wizard: https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Times-Nikola-Biography-Genius/dp/0806539968 https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Times-Nikola-Biography-Genius/... ..that whole period is wild for inventors I'm surprised there aren't more movies about it!

mrtnmcc 5y ago

Doesn't everyone do this? I remember at the age of five finally learning to control my falling dreams at night, to be able to freeze in the air and eventually fly (the Matrix scene definitely resonated later). This was the beginning of a continuous exercise of imagining things more and more exactly and controlling that imagination. Now as an engineer, I spend most of my time staring at a wall simulating and refining designs in my head. As Tesla notes, they are usually accurate. The most interesting cases however are when I can't quite be sure what will happen. Building those projects are some of the most exciting and often most valuable work. Besides imagination, simulating on a computer is useful, but more to explain an imagined design to others. Occassionaly, when simulations scale to a certain level of parallel interaction (like neural networks), those simulations take on the character of reality which may defy imagination. At least until enough experimentation and observation develops intuition.

Monroe13 5y ago
> Doesn't everyone do this? I wish I had the ability of imagination like you describe. I don’t think I have full-on aphantasia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia) but I definitely can’t run simulations in my mind.
- gfody 5y ago
  we're really lacking in ability to effectively describe the qualia of "imagining" - it could be that some people visualize internal fidelity more closely matching the raw signal of their optic nerve and others have an entirely separate way of experiencing. for myself I can say that I mentally visualize just fine but it is nothing at all like actual vision. if you asked me how is it different then this is where words fail. it's entirely different but I can't describe how.
  - yboris 5y ago
    My inner imagination pales in comparison to the visualizations I experience on LSD. This experience sets up a nice contrast of what my mind is capable of VS what I generally am able to do when imagining. I'm eager to try spending time imagining / visualizing things as I used to do when I was a kid, but it's hard to find time with all the exciting projects and busy life stuff in the way.

ksaj 5y ago

Nikolo Paganini was known to practice violin without actually touching one. Same goes for composing. He (allegedly at least) used to conceptualize in his mind how his hands would move for each part, and would master those movements, even though he wasn't actually doing them. It greatly played into his reputation of having made a deal with the devil, because people only very rarely heard him practice or compose - he just went ahead with new content seemingly out of the blue, but in reality put a lot of work into it. It sounds very similar to what Nikola Tesla often did.

kaba0 5y ago

Interesting coming from a guy who did not even believe in electrons.

sbmthakur 5y ago

I know that's quite but isn't it similar to running Socratic method in your head?

kashyapc 5y ago

Ten years ago I've read Margaret Cheny's (a mathematician) biography of Tesla. Unfortunately, I don't recall anything much besides a vague, pleasant memory of being impressed by Tesla's inventive mind and Cheny's research for the book. I wonder if anyone here has read Cheny's bio and any other biographies of Tesla to compare and contrast. I see a couple of them out there (1) Wizard by Marc Sefir; (2) Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes.

amai 5y ago

Given the design it seems he could "only" simulate 2d fluids in his mind. I wonder if the design would also work when extended to 3d, because 3d turbulence is very different from 2d turbulence.