Peak Thinkers@PeakThinkers_
Jeff Bezos on the exact moment he realized he would never be a great physicist:
"I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. I went to Princeton. I was a really good student, I got A-pluses on almost everything. I was in the honors physics track, which starts with 100 students and by quantum mechanics it's down to 30."
Then came the homework problem:
"I can't solve this partial differential equation. It's really, really hard. I've been studying with my roommate Joe, who was also really good at math. The two of us worked on this one problem for three hours and got nowhere."
They decided to visit Yasantha, the smartest guy at Princeton:
"He was Sri Lankan. In the Facebook, which was an actual paper book at that time, his name was three lines long. I guess in Sri Lanka when you do something good for the king, they give you an extra syllable on your name. The most humble, wonderful guy."
Jeff continues:
"We show him the problem. He stares at it for a while and says, 'Cosine.' I'm like, 'What do you mean?' He says, 'That's the answer.' I said, 'That's the answer?' He said, 'Yeah, let me show you.' He sits us down, writes out three pages of detailed algebra, everything crosses out, and the answer is cosine."
Jeff asked if he solved it in his head:
"He said, 'No, that would be impossible. Three years ago I solved a very similar problem and I was able to map this problem onto that one. Then it was immediately obvious the answer was cosine.'"
Jeff reflects:
"That was an important moment for me. Because that was the very moment I realized I was never going to be a great theoretical physicist."
