It is not that Einstein is overrated, but rather that many people entertaining the usual ideas about his genius are blissfully unaware of his contemporaries and

It is not that Einstein is overrated, but rather that many people entertaining the usual ideas about his genius are blissfully unaware of his contemporaries and their work: Poincaré, Lorentz, Minkowski. Then of course Newton had Hooke, who figured out gravitation for him, and Leibniz who had some of the same insights in calculus. History of science is richer and more entertaining than the Einstein this and Einstein that — with all due respect to the man.