Einstein's Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius

Einstein succeeded not merely in spite of, but sometimes because of his mistakes. The fruitful mistakes were mainly conceptual rather than mathematical ones. For example, in formulating special relativity he decreed, rather than demonstrated, that light travels at a constant speed in a vacum regardless of how fast you are moving relative to a light source. In general relativity he started with the idea that it is impossible to distinguish in certain circumstances between acceleration due to gra

Einstein succeeded not merely in spite of, but sometimes because of his mistakes. The fruitful mistakes were mainly conceptual rather than mathematical ones. For example, in formulating special relativity he decreed, rather than demonstrated, that light travels at a constant speed in a vacum regardless of how fast you are moving relative to a light source. In general relativity he started with the idea that it is impossible to distinguish in certain circumstances between acceleration due to gravity and acceleration due to some other force. Both of these ideas are to greater or lesser degrees incorrect or at least not consistent with the notion that science has some connection to what one observes. But he overcame both, though he tended to stubbornly insist that there was no problems with either of the above ideas.

I was interested to learn that the physicist Hendrick Lorentz and the mathematician Henri Poincare had formulated parts of special relavivty before Einstein. Einstein though greatly generalized the application of the ideas of special relativity to all of physics, while Lorentz applied his ideas only to electromagnetism. Both Lorentz and Poincare seem to have stuck with the idea that light must travel through a medium like other waves, and thus stuck with the idea that the ether, a hypothetical medium in which light propagates must exist - although they conceded that it could not be detected and that special relativity made its existence redundant. Einstein did not follow their example.

I found it interesting to learn that Einstein did not much like math, which seems rather odd for someone who was a theoretical physicist by profession. His successes resulted from insight into the consequences of physical principles, plus an eye for weak spots in existing ideas. In later years he always had an assistant to help with the math. Many of his papers have mathematical errors. His general relativity could have come out in a satisfactory form earlier had he been quicker to learn the relevant mathematical technique (tensors).

Unfortunately his last two decades were spent in search of a grand unified theory of all the forces of physics, at a time when this was wildly premature. Worse, his fellow physicists could easily spot that his repeated and public efforts on this subject failed even to account for existing knowledge, such as coming out with the correct results for electromagnetism or the effects of general relativity. His efforts were further hampered by his unwillingness to accept the framework of quantum theory as developed in the 1920s. All this failure leads one to the more general question of how long anyone should persist with an idea that does not lead to immediate success. Abandoning the idea after the first reverse may be premature; continuing on and on in the hopes of eventual success however may simply be self-delusion.

Einstein in his private life was not admirable. He seems to have been a serial adulterer. He also did little to ease the living conditions of a son by his first marriage, who suffered from some kind of mental illness and was institutionalized. Although it would appear that some sort of professional care was appropriate, some of Einstein's considerable affluence could have been devoted to ensuring that his son, an intelligent man whatever his emotional problems, did not have to spend decades sleeping in a dormitory.