Albert Einstein understood the dangerous pitfalls lurking under cults of personality. In his twilight years, Einstein reassured his friends, family members, & worldwide followers his Princeton home would not become a future pilgrimage site centered on an “Einsteinian Personality Cult.” This begs a rather honest question: how many Einstein fans out there truly understand the scientific theories he developed, defended, & infinitely expanded? Einstein would agree, personality cults centered on his life deaden the science he worked tirelessly to evolve. As it turns out, eating, smoking, or dressing like Einstein is no direct invitation to genius.
On the contrary, such compulsive behaviors result in the general illusion of genius where people voice slogans such as “science is real” while remaining fundamentally scientifically illiterate. People that hide behind such slogans under pretenses of scientifically literacy struggle to differentiate between protons, electrons, & neutrons. In effect, they expose their own ignorance when tasked with articulating their actual defense of science beyond the catchy slogans. This is suggestive of an alarming state of affairs where functional ignorance is reclassified as general intelligence. It is therefore unsurprising why we often fail to differentiate between science fiction & science fact despite the creative translucency connecting both.
It must therefore be emphasized: Einstein’s pipe is an arbitrary construct of creativity. Chewing a certain brand of bubble gum or writing with a Waterman fountain pen alone is no true catalyst to originality turned creative insight. Granted, material aesthetics like having paper with good quality thickness with a fine writing instrument accelerates productivity as an “interactive encourageant” to the flow of “original creative discourse.” Perhaps by studying the idiosyncrasies of creativity we can better map triggers of original thought.
Thus, two questions come to mind: do interactive habits turned personal rituals afford tangible proof suggesting idiosyncrasies exist as inherent catalysts of genius? For every behavioral idiosyncrasy, is there a potential catalyst for genius when repositioned to challenge the critical foundations of an assumed reality?
Nonetheless, such curiosities are not without a humbling conclusion: the greatest minds of history seldom acknowledged themselves as the living & breathing incarnation of genius in their own time.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-albert-einstein-genius-theory-relativity-loved-pipe-180954991/