Currently #trending in my life: Einstein and startup life
Hello again after long. I continue to battle my inability to post more frequently. The challenge equally frustrates and excites me, for the same reason :) However, just over a month since my last post isn’t too shabby, if I do say so myself..
Ok the title is a bit misleading, in that it indicates that I somehow am about to establish a connection between Einstein and the startup world. Alas, this post isn’t that ambitious (though, unsurprisingly, I did find this neat infographic from a quick search on ‘Einstein and startups’; Oh, Internet). I instead wanted to just share a moment-in-time view of my current daily life.
As I stated earlier in the blog (ha, such a start to the sentence gives the impression that I’ve produced like 50 blog posts..but hey just go with me on this for literary gravitas), I recently moved to Toronto with the goal of starting many-a-thing anew. After a couple of months of adjusting to new [city/apartment/country/people/climate], I began in earnest to attempt to establish a work routine and crank on my new venture. I travel by train and by foot from where I am staying to where I work; this takes about 45min (0r 60min for a deliberately longer route to incorporate more walking) door to door.
In order to fill my travel time productively, I wanted to listen to podcasts and/or start reading. I have a good track record of developing a habit of the former, having spent respectable amounts of time commute by car in California (day-in-the-life glimpse on this interestingly specific page). However, the last time I read a book completely was a few years ago. So, I decided; reading a book it is.
[Flashback for dramatic effect] On a recent trip to India (at the airport in Mumbai, after a 21 hr journey from Toronto, killing time for my flight to Bangalore, to be specific), I picked up a book called ‘how to think like EINSTEIN’ by Daniel Smith, who seems to have written other books in the ‘how to think like’ series, and also other books that have more sensational titles/topics. My reason for buying it was solely to pick up quirky facts and abstruse insights about this great man, you know, as in-transit food for thought. Prior to purchase, I read a couple of pages on his struggles to come up with the general theory of relativity, and liked the author’s style. Something to keep me company while flying, I thought (well, and as an alternative to the repetitive viewings of Family Guy, Entourage, and Fresh Prince I typically induldge in on long(ish) flights). However, the overwhelming and bitter-sweet assault on one’s senses that is India, happened to me and I didn’t get to the book until after returning to Toronto. [end Flashback].
So, I started reading it en route to work, from midtown Toronto to downtown Toronto. I must admit that I did not expect to be taken for such an intellectual, philosophical, and literary ride. This book has a very high information-to-sentence ratio (a measure I use reguarly in conversation) and a very high enjoyment-to-page ratio (a measure I just made up). The specific sentences, chapters, insights, and facts that moved me are just too numerous to list, but below are some highlights.
Now to the part that explains the title of the blog post. Even before getting to the highlights, I will say that this book took me (and I hope will take you should you pick a copy up) on a ride away from my natural surroundings. Much like how people talk about flights of fantasy when reading their favorite fiction books, I felt joyfully removed from my train ride, from my walks to work on these humid summer days, from my very tactical/operational/get-your-hands-dirty/roll-up-your-sleeves ups and downs of startup life, from my shared workspace, from my worries about raising venture funding, from my focus on longer term potential for my idea, from it all. I’d only manage a few pages to work and a few pages en route back. Just getting into a couple of paragraphs would still swiftly whisk me away on a mental journey into some of the most profound challenges, realizations, and events humanity has faced/faces.
What a luxurious indulgence of the mind, and how inexpensive it is too(cost of the book $5 CAD)! From the theory of relativity to the rise of anti-Semitism, from the notion of the nation-state to the politics and social pressures of the Nobel prize, from the Arab-Israeli conflict to the connection between spirituality and scientific pursuit, the book covers it all. So strong is the ‘removal from reality’ when reading the book that I’d feel a sense of aloofness and distance from my immediate tasks at hand the moment I close the book. I’d immediately want to reopen and get lost in the world of thought, theoretical physics, history of science, and this brilliant man’s philosophy. Ever since I started reading it, I’ve found myself in this state of drastic emotional flux — from the abstract to the practical, from the academic to the experimental, from history to the present. From far-reaching topics touching all of humanity over the length of time, to thinking about updating my pitch deck and interviewing a new team member, I vacillate twice a day (to and from work), almost struggling to make the switch from pages in the book to footsteps to work.
Hence the title of this post. I must also imagine that anyone reading any amazing body of work while going through ‘reality’ must feel the same way. A lady reading a great piece of fiction on her way to work, for instance, or a schoolboy picking up a detective story for the first time, or an old retiree discovering a travel adventure series to fill what might otherwise be a relatively mundane routine. Each might have their own ‘drastic emotional flux’ on a daily basis as well.
This one happens to be mine, and I just wanted to share this delightful dilemma with you all. Ok, on to the highlights from the book then.
a) Einstein’s relationships with God and religion: are covered in one of the chapters, and are excellently elaborated. Einstein had a complex and nuanced relationship on both fronts. He was very religious, but his definition of religion was anything but traditional. He belived that the vastness of the universe and the relatively small extent of our understanding of it represented a beautiful divine force. This characteristic was his God, and in this sense, he was a deeply religious man. As proof, consider these exquisite sentences he once wrote: ‘I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals or would sit in judgement on creatures of his own creation…My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend about the knowable world.’ Wow. I stopped reading for many minutes and pondered that thought. Whether you subscribe to this or not, you have to admire the complexity, depth, and expansiveness of his mind. As a student and fan of science, I love his expressiveness and his perspective on science and religion. Another of his quotes that I loved: ‘The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.’ Once again, such a harmonious perspective bridging religiosity and scientic puruit. Einstein was a religious man and a pursuer of rational understanding. Coincidentally, so was Newton (though in a slightly different way), who had (er, continues to have/will continue to have) a similarly monumental impact (on some very similar topics too, funnily enough) on mankind.
b) Being a citizen of the world: In 1918, Einstein said ‘I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by disposition a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.’ This to me is a very powerful and personal quote. Having lived in four countries, and having parents and a sibling that lived in five and seven countries respectively, I always felt a simultaneous sense of global connectedness and contemporary nomadism. I felt I belonged everywhere and (a to a lesser extent and only occasionally) nowhere. From the book, I learned Einstein similarly traveled across a number of countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, USA) but had strong feelings about the notion of a nation state, expressing himself as in the quote above. I think I see myself as a citizen of the world too; I feel the planet is my home the various countries are different neighborhoods in my global city. I have fond memories of growing up in India, of my teenage years in Ireland, and of my twenties in the US (with new memories of Canada already brewing!). I cannot see myself associating to just one culture or mindset, but instead feeling like the whole world is home. Einstein had more nuanced objections with nation-states, but I drew a little bit of joy in seeing a sentiment of global connectedness / love for humanity in his philosophy.
c) Einstein’s love for working in isolation: numerous chapters in the book indicate that Einstein was by no means shy of social interaction, or had any trouble making conversation or professional collaborations (however bitter-sweet they may have been at times). However, he seems to have preferred solitary conditions particulary when working or when wanting to ponder the great questions in his mind and of his time. I certainly can relate to this, and found the details of this comforting. I’ve always felt the need to just go to a quiet corner or a dark room, shut off from conversation or company, when working. I did this when I would code in college, when I need to create a new presenation at work, when I needed to draft an important email, or even when I wanted to write a new poem (I published, occasionally!). That pin drop silence for extended periods of time is so cathartic, so rejuvenating, and so invigorating. I’d have periods of time when I didn’t even want to interact with close friends or family. I just wanted to work, on my own, until wanting to emerge from this productive cocoon hours/days later. The book shows good evidence of Einstein doing so (though, ahem, he indisputably worked on more interesting problems than I did). This, I liked.
Well, I will stop there, as I can easily continue this list and produce a much much longer blog post than even what this one turned out to be.
I definitely recommend reading it. It is a quick read, perhaps a couple of days if you really wanted to go at it. Just as much as the contents of the book, the contrast of my mental state and direction of focus when reading and not reading them fascinated me, and prompted me to write this post. I hope you find them both interesting, or amusing at the very least.
Drop me a note with your thoughts. I’m not one to shy away from a witty conversation, if you couldn’t already tell :)
