Bad Student, Better Genius

When Einstein heard the rumor alleging he failed grade-school math he laughed, “Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” Nevertheless, the tales of the math savant being a difficult student ring true.

Although, unlike the average student he struggled due to boredom from what he lamented as “mechanical discipline” from his teachers. As it turns out, the misunderstood genius simply needed space to work out his many theories. Somehow kids making this same argument with Tik Tok falls on deaf ears.

Specific Strengths

Einstein's I.Q. has remained a point of contention. The man himself never cared and often repeated some version of "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." Theories of his IQ score typically range around 160 but that could be misleading.

As Dean Keith Simonton, professor emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, argues, "One fundamental problem with the estimates I've seen is that they tend to conflate intellectual ability with domain-specific achievement." Essentially, Einstein might have held a near incomparable understanding in certain subjects but an average one in others.

Charming Weaknesses

While Einstein certainly mastered much of math, other pursuits dumbfounded one of the world’s great minds. One such amusement that lay beyond his grasp? Sailing. In spite of a complete lack of sailing talent, he fell in love with the sport while studying in Zurich.

Rumors of many capsizings that ended in rescues were confirmed when the New York Times reported on Einstein’s sailing adventures with the headline "Relative Tide and Sand Bars Trap Einstein." The name of his boat, Tinef (Yiddish for “worthless”) exhibited a flash of his humor.

Slow Burn

Like many people working their way up, Einstein took two years searching for an academic position. His willful personality and affinity for skipping classes led to poor recommendations from his professors. Even when he finally found a job, it remained far from prestigious. Nevertheless, while working at the Swiss patent office, his true genius shone through, thanks to nothing more than time and space. After finishing the menial office duties, he concentrated on his research, which led to his “miracle year” of 1905. In that single year, the modest clerk published four revolutionary articles, including the famous E = MC2. Amazingly, he didn’t win his full professorship for another four years!

Finally, upon arriving in the upper echelons of academia, Einstein revealed how the years of toiling informed his sense of humor saying, "[N]ow I too am an official member of the guild of whores." He also infamously kept a gifted nameplate of "Albert, Knight of the Backside," in his apartment.

A Principled Person

Despite his grand intellect Einstein never viewed himself as superior to others. When a young girl wrote to him, complaining about her struggles with math. He wrote back, "Do not worry about your difficulty in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

He also loudly spoke out against racism despite the advice of many colleagues. “There is a separation of colored people from white people in the United States,” he said using the vernacular of the day. “That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.” When pen pal and author W.E.B. Du Bois came under scrutiny during the Red Scare, Einstein came to his rescue as a character witness. Apparently, his own 1,800-page FBI file didn’t factor in.

He also deeply regretted his part in the Manhatten project, which led to the development of the atom bomb. He later told Newsweek, “Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I never would have lifted a finger.”