OTOH his key contribution to special relativity, so I gather, was the axiomatic approach. Others like Lorentz had worked out most of the formulas already by fin

OTOH his key contribution to special relativity, so I gather, was the axiomatic approach. Others like Lorentz had worked out most of the formulas already by finding some tractable-enough assumptions about electrons and atoms; Einstein went back to the style of Euclid and Archimedes: what if we postulate a few simple laws and draw out consequences? Back to the article's topic, Einstein wrote that Euclid was a revelation to him when he was 11 or so. (I forget exactly; it was in the intro to his book Relativity.)