Einstein book cover

Einstein

by Walter Isaacson

physicsbiographyfictionsciencetechnology
6people recommended this

Who recommended this book

Bill Gates
Bill Gates

Co-founder of Microsoft

1
mention
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg

Co-founder and CEO of Meta

1
mention
Sam Altman
Sam Altman

CEO of OpenAI

1
mention
This biography of the iconic physicist offers a fascinating glimpse into his life, work, and thought processes. It’s a reminder that genius often comes from curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.
Andrej Karpathy
Andrej Karpathy

Director of AI at Tesla

1
mention
This was my second read of an Einstein biography, this time by Isaacson. Coming from Isaacson, the book is well-written and seemed very thoroughly researched. Overall a great read, but if I had to complain my biggest issue is that the emphasis was not allocated very well. For instance, a huge portion of the book is devoted to Einstein’s personal life, reading through his correspondence with his love interests. It’s interesting for a while, but after some point I thought we were intruding a little too much, and that it was stretched out and uninformative. Conversely, some very interesting portions of his life are under-represented. In one chapter he publishes his streak of 1905 papers, and in what feels like a few pages later he is a scientific celebrity. This period, where the community is discovering and processing him as a person from nowhere who made sudden and large contributions is among the most interesting, and very sparsely covered. There could have also been much more space fo
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson

Biographer of Steve Jobs and Da Vinci

Elon Musk
Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla & SpaceX

← View all recommendations