the world is endlessly curious about
geniuses and albert einstein was one of
them his name is synonymous with genius
for god's sake i think part of the human
condition is the desire to feel special
we see somebody who seems special and we
want to understand why and how to maybe
be a little bit more like them we want
it so badly that we will do very strange
things to get it after einstein died his
brain was stolen during an autopsy in an
attempt to understand his brilliant and
curious mind needless to say it didn't
work but i'm not going to let that stop
me i do not have access to his brain but
i think we can better understand how he
operated in a different way by stepping
into his shoes in episode 5 of my series
exploring history as giants i want to
share with you my experiment deep diving
into the daily routine of einstein a man
who left a mark on humankind forever
ah
good morning
i feel
amazing i just slept 10 hours last night
which was a feature of einstein's daily
routine it has been so long since i've
slept that long
and i feel clear-minded i feel like i
could do some science right now there's
one thing i'm not super excited about
honestly and it is that einstein never
wore socks so no socks being worn this
week he saw them as a distraction as a
kid as they would often end up with
holes so he banned them all together
back the end of the world i'm going to
mimic him even though there's no
productivity benefit from this
whatsoever i'm going to mimic him until
i can't tolerate it anymore
all right welcome to my kitchen now
einstein was a big fan of fried eggs he
would have them every morning at least
two oftentimes with mushrooms later in
life he tended more towards
vegetarianism and it appeared as though
he did a lot of drinking of coffee and
tea so that's what i'm gonna do right
now making myself some fried egg
breakfast
here's what his schedule looked like
during his years working as a professor
at princeton this was the clearest
information that i could get on his
daily routine thanks to mason curry's
book daily rituals and it's interesting
because it's definitely not the crazy
genius stereotype 9am to 10am breakfast
and daily paper 10 30am left to the
office walking or received a ride with
bad weather 1pm returns home after work
1 30 pm lunch nap tea and the rest of
the afternoon was spent at home working
seeing visitors and dealing with any
correspondence from his secretary until
6 30. 6 30 p.m
dinner followed by more work and letter
writing so there are a few standout
features of this routine that i think
are really important to note first of
all the amount of sleep it's not just
the 10 hours a night but he also took
naps it's a lot of sleep i love sleeping
i think this is amazing sleep makes me a
better person in every way possible
there are actually a few other really
interesting aspects of his daily routine
but i'll get to that a little bit later
on there's something that i need to do
first
before i dive any deeper into this video
i'm going to shave my beard off to look
a little bit more like einstein because
why not might as well get into character
am i right and while i do that i want to
talk about the sponsor of this video
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am here than the rest of my face that's
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oh my god
wow that is a very different look right
there i didn't turn into einstein it
turned into a truck driver i'm actually
having way more fun doing this than i
realized the newsletter goes out monday
through sunday if you're interested in
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below so check it out if you're curious
and i want to thank morning room for
sponsoring this video what have i turned
into please comment below whatever i've
turned into is this like uh my trapeze
artist now
ladies and gentlemen i give you
nathaniel einstein i'm not used to my
own face
[Music]
mario
[Music]
on my daily walk to work i don't have a
fixed office or a university to go to so
i'm going to a coffee shop
but that'll do you know that's totally
fine
okay this is very strange and on top of
it it's freezing outside but uh you got
to do what you got to do einstein was a
fascinating character he had an affair
with an alleged russian spy margherita
koninkova and was married to his cousin
elsa believe it or not the fbi had a
file of over 1400 pages on albert
einstein largely because of his lifelong
association with pacifist and socialist
organizations
okay
so
einstein was big on taking naps i
struggle to take naps but
i'm gonna give this a shot when i
experimented with da vinci's daily
routine i definitely saw that napping
can give you an amazing boost
so
it doesn't hurt to lie down for a few
minutes each day that's for sure but
this is so much sleep i mean so much
more than i'm used to
[Music]
all right we're due for an update today
is day three of me not wearing any socks
and honestly i miss them they are one of
life's pleasures i'm really enjoying
this daily routine of anybody that i've
done so far this is the most comfortable
routine of them all it absolutely 100
prioritizes rest and having lots of time
in space for thinking
and creativity so i just recently
finished an amazing audiobook called
rest by alex xujong kimpong who explores
all of these super high performing
people throughout history and their
habits and how they went about living
their lives and there's this common
through line of rest highly successful
people in the arts and sciences are
disciplined like very disciplined about
their rest there are really common
patterns among these people like for
example naps that's something that we
see in this daily routine and it's
something i struggle with honestly i'm
not a huge napper lots of walks this was
something albert einstein didn't take
for granted he received so many death
threats in 1920s germany that he tried
to avoid walking alone but threats never
stopped him from living his life and he
used his fame to speak out against
racism and nationalism and it's just so
funny to me how
we have these culturally encouraged
ideas around hard work around grinding
around pushing a couple of extra hours
sleeping right 10 hours in bed and
which is way more than the usual amount
i think how we see that as oftentimes
lazy or unproductive einstein had a very
different way of looking at things
honestly i find einstein quite inspiring
in that he seemed to not really care
much what other people thought about him
he always did things his own way at his
own pace he was a late starter at many
stages of his life he struggled to find
a job after his studies but he set his
sights on what many would consider
completely unrealistic
objectives and he stuck with them and he
had this level of patience
that was
unbeatable it's funny because these
habits a few years ago when i was a
little bit more immersed in the world of
hustle culture and whatnot as i was just
trying to find my way in the world right
and looking for solutions i would have
thought to myself oh my god what a
horrible use of time you're napping who
has time to nap their [ __ ] to do i'm
here to make cash
and trade stocks
if i'm liking making money right now i'm
a failure at least you're vlogging this
i feel like i'm going to get some return
on my time
what i'm coming to realize is that as i
get older and as i experiment with these
routines i'm seeing the enormous value
of these little moments time and space
for my mind to roam to not kind of over
stimulate and bombard myself and that's
something we are all doing all the time
it's almost like you have to think
bigger than your own biology your mind
will trick you with the dopamine that it
gets from notifications and
staying busy and whatnot but if you're
willing to think bigger and longer term
and pace yourself i think that's how
truly incredible things come to be
that's how you make breakthroughs that's
how you make art that stands out that's
how you make amazing things all these
high performers they were all playing
the wrong game there's no point in
rushing day by day if you stick with
something over years and decades and i'm
seeing as i've seen in previous episodes
in the series how my own behavior is
sabotaging my own potential that if i
were to be more mindful about how i
spend my time if i were just to be a
little bit more intentional about
everything that i do it sort of unlocks
a level of creativity and clarity that
you can't get otherwise there's no
shortcut
so we are in week two now of doing this
i've decided to extend this experiment
for a second week with a few
modifications okay i'm back to wearing
socks i'm sorry i'm done with that one i
think there's a lot that isn't revealed
about einstein just by looking at his
daily routine this guy was relentless
with whatever it was that he was
focusing on he was so misunderstood he
was ridiculed for his eccentricities and
he was
not a conformist which i think is one of
the reasons why i respect him so much i
mean this guy was stateless for a while
as in he didn't belong to any country
and he renounced his german citizenship
a second time later in life to stand up
against what was going on with the nazi
party what einstein embodies for me and
i think this is something that he
understood well was that you can't put
genius or intelligence or creativity
into boxes there's no recipe for this
kind of thing he did what he could in
his daily life to give himself the best
odds to let his mind do its thing but he
also never let people decide how he
should live i think the only way you can
arrive at the theory of relativity the
only way you can change everybody's
perception of the universe is by
being bold enough to ask questions that
most people aren't willing to ask think
about it if i said right now yeah you
know what i think maybe our
understanding of the universe isn't
right that maybe i could offer
a different perspective on how things
work you might think i'm insane who am i
to say something like that but who was
einstein nobody believed in him until
everybody did and it was the same guy
all along whether people believed in him
or not i spent this time doing this
daily routine working on my book and
other upcoming projects and living this
way made me wonder what if productivity
was actually something that looked
nothing like the accelerated way we live
and work in the 21st century i think
being curious is a more powerful force
for change than how full your calendar
is or how big your accounts get there is
too much to say about this guy to fit
into one single video but i do want to
end with a few final thoughts the first
is a little story that i found quite
inspiring in 1932 einstein left germany
for the last time as his life was in
danger the german press was after him
and the year after his scientific works
were publicly burned in berlin can you
imagine that happening to you crazy he
eventually immigrated to the united
states and in march of 1934 congress
introduced this joint resolution to
offer einstein u.s citizenship it was
like a special offer to make citizenship
much easier for him now what does
einstein do in this situation he rejects
the offer and when i first read that i
was like wow who does that he was
ashamed and saddened by this offer
because he didn't want to assume any
special privilege he wanted to be
treated like any other immigrant there's
something powerful about that to me i
started this video exploring the desire
for specialness that we all have i love
doing these experiments you know they're
fun and i learn so much every single
time but that being said it's a mistake
to compare ourselves to other especially
the einsteins of the world and to think
that we have to measure up to their
achievements or to emulate how they live
their lives hopefully it's becoming
clearer as i do each episode of this
series that everybody lives their life a
little bit differently no two daily
routines have even looked remotely
similar and the lesson that i take away
from einstein is to do things your own
way regardless if people agree with it
or not be humble in your pursuit of
answers he famously said more than
knowledge less of the ego lesser the
knowledge more that you go and on that
note about specialness there's a part of
the stolen brain story that i haven't
told you yet einstein didn't want his
brain or body studied he did not want to
be worshipped in fact he left very
specific instructions for after he died
he wanted to be cremated and he wanted
the ashes spread secretly in order to
discourage idolaters he was not somebody
to idolize and he had all of his own
flaws just like any other human that's
not what he wanted he believed we're all
geniuses in our own right and i happen
to agree with him the important thing is
to not stop questioning curiosity has
its own reason for existing one cannot
help but be in awe when he contemplates
the mysteries of eternity of life the
marvelous structure of reality is enough
if one tries merely to comprehend a
little of this mystery every day
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i'll leave the links to everything down
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watching
i put audio books on when i sleep
this is kind of
ibrahimovic vibes right