Sometimes it seems like the world has far too many jerks and not enough geniuses.
However, it turns out that being a jerk and being a genius aren’t mutually exclusive.
In fact, some of the most famous minds in history have belonged to some of humanity's
most colossal creeps.
Here's a look at some geniuses who were actually terrible people.
Isaac Newton's insane pettiness
Sir Isaac Newton is up there with the greatest scientists of all time.
Among his many accomplishments, he managed to invent calculus, figure out the three laws
of motion, and discover gravity.
He was also constantly involved in petty disputes with other scientists about just how much
credit he should get.
Mathematician Gottfried Leibniz is perhaps his most famous adversary, but that's partially
because Newton allegedly went out of his way to completely erase another rival from the
history books: Robert Hooke.
A brilliant scientist called the "English Da Vinci," Hooke and Newton disagreed on many
things, including whether or not Hooke should get credit for his contributions to the theory
of gravity.
Once Hooke died, though, the argument was over, as Newton went on a smear campaign to
tarnish Hooke's reputation.
Newton allegedly may have been behind the destruction of the only known contemporary
painting of Hooke to ensure history would forget Hooke's face, a move known in scientific
circles as the Theory of Total Pettiness.
Nikola Tesla believed in eugenics
If you're not familiar with eugenics, it's the idea that mankind should be bred for specific
mental and physical traits in order to create what some might term a "master race."
At least, that's what the Nazis were aiming for with their program of eugenics, but Hitler
wasn't the only one in favor of the idea.
Genius inventor Nikola Tesla was all about it too.
Yup, that's right.
In 1935, right as the Nazis were coming to power, Tesla wrote an article for Liberty
magazine predicting that by the year 2100, eugenics would be all the rage.
He wrote:
"In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less
desirable strains.
Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature.
As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.
The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent
the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating
instinct."
Tesla went on to applaud the sterilization of criminals and people with mental health
disorders, but wanted governments to make marriage more difficult to ensure only people
viewed as desirable parents would be allowed to breed.
Yikes!
Steve Jobs was a tyrant
Apple visionary Steve Jobs was reportedly a jerk to nearly everyone he came in contact
with.
The list of offenses is nearly endless, from firing people with no warning and no severance,
to cursing out his employees, to asking people during job interviews if they were virgins.
In one famous incident from the birth of the company, Jobs was offered a large bonus to
do a job for Atari.
Instead, he got his friend Steve Wozniak to do it and lied to him about how much they
were being paid, only giving him a small percent of the fee.
But he was perhaps worst to his daughter Lisa, whom he denied was his daughter even after
a DNA test proved it.
She ended up on welfare while he enjoyed his millions.
But hey, at least we all have cool phones now, right?
Albert Einstein was a terrible husband
Einstein is pretty much required to be on any list of geniuses.
But one person who probably didn't think Einstein was all that was his long-suffering first
wife, Mileva Maric.
In 1912, Einstein began a relationship with his cousin Elsa.
Needless to say, Mileva wasn't pleased.
In 1914, Einstein delivered a letter to his wife detailing a list of demands she had to
meet if she wanted to stay married to him.
She was required to make his meals and clean his house, but wasn't allowed to talk to him
unless given permission, and was prohibited from requesting any kind of affection or intimacy.
What a great deal!
Instead, the couple separated later that year, and once the divorce was finalized, Einstein
just went ahead and married his cousin.
Oh, and some people think he took credit for her work, too.
So that pretty much stinks all around.
Elia Kazan's witch hunt
The brilliant director behind classics like On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and A Streetcar
Named Desire, Elia Kazan also helped found the prestigious Actor's Studio.
So you'd expect him to be beloved in Hollywood.
In reality, though, he ended his life an outcast.
Why?
Well, at the height of the red scare in 1952, he was called before the House Un-American
Activities Committee and asked to give up the names of suspected communists in Hollywood.
He happily complied, and even took out an ad in the New York Times urging other people
to participate in the witch hunt.
The eight people he named were blacklisted from Hollywood, their careers destroyed.
Kazan, on the other hand, won the Oscar for Best Director three years later for On the
Waterfront, a movie about how being a snitch is totally cool.
"You're a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin' mug!
And I'm glad what I done to you!
You hear that?!
I'm glad what I done!"
Times change, though, and in 1999 was Kazan was given the Oscar for lifetime achievement.
Actors including Sean Penn took out an ad decrying the decision.
On the night, hundreds of protesters were outside the broadcast.
When he received the award, actors like Ed Harris and Nick Nolte refused to stand up
for him or even clap.
"In the last circle of hell are all the traitors, right?
And there's one down there for Elia Kazan."
For his part, though, Kazan never regretted his actions, writing in his 1988 autobiography
that it was an example of his, quote, "true self."
"Do you regret the decision now that you did that?"
"No, I don't.
Um, the opposite."
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