Rule #1: Expend your efforts on the things that matter.
Rule #2: Do things you love, even if you’re terrible at them.
Rule #3: Have a puzzle mindset.
Rule #4: Think deeply, both long and hard, about things that truly fascinate you.
Rule #5: Don’t let politics fill you with either rage or despair.
Rule #6: Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
Rule #7: Science, truth, and education are for everyone, not just the privileged few.
Rule #6: Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
Many of us, upon hearing something that we are certain is either absurd, flawed, or hopelessly corrupt, immediately and vociferously make up our minds to oppose them, regardless of what the full suite of evidence actually indicates. Once we abandon our critical thinking faculties because we are certain we know the answer, we tend to simply go along with those who agree with us and oppose those who espouse anything different. To Einstein, this represented the death of the rational mind, which he called “collective insanity” or a “herd mind.” Today, we would likely call it groupthink, and Einstein noted that it was often driven by a prominent figure spouting propaganda.
Scientists, including formerly reputable ones like Johannes Stark (Nobel Laureate and founder of the Stark effect), formed an anti-relativity society that discredited Einstein and his theory. Fueled by nationalism and anti-semitism, Einstein and his ideas became a target, with one line of attack claiming relativity was wrong and dangerous, and another line claiming it was brilliant but that Einstein stole the idea from “real” (non-Jewish) scientists. It was this course of action that eventually led to Einstein having a bounty placed on his head, leading to him fleeing Germany for the United States. While Einstein initially thought these machinations were silly, ridiculous, and harmless, he later concluded that “Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.” In the era of fake news, this lesson is more important to assimilate than ever.
