Was Tesla the Ultimate Deep Thinker? | Deep Questions Podcast with Cal Newport

00:00:04.640 | So let's jump into some calls. Jesse, what is our first call about?

00:00:08.000 | Hi, so our first call we have Nikola. He's going to ask you a question about the Serbian scientist Tesla.

00:00:14.000 | So here we go.

00:00:16.000 | You regard Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla as the ultimate deep pork thinker because he was 100% focused on his inventions

00:00:27.000 | and that led him to become the greatest inventor of all time.

00:00:32.000 | I don't know if I would say... So it's a good question.

00:00:36.000 | So if I'm hearing it correctly, the question is, do I personally consider Tesla, Nikola Tesla, to be the greatest inventor of all time?

00:00:46.000 | I'm not sure if I would say that. I mean, it depends how we want to actually define what makes you the greatest inventor of all time.

00:00:54.000 | I recently read a pretty dense Edison biography.

00:00:58.000 | And so something Edison had, for example, that Tesla didn't, was the ability to commercialize.

00:01:06.000 | So to take an idea but then actually push that idea through into something that could be mass produced, sold at mass.

00:01:12.000 | Tesla was not interested in that. He was interested more in the technology.

00:01:15.000 | There's also some mythology around Tesla.

00:01:17.000 | I think the Tesla mythology has grown to the point where he's seen as basically inventing every technology ever in a 10 year period.

00:01:25.000 | Like, well, Tesla thought about that and he thought about this.

00:01:27.000 | And I think that's a little exaggerated.

00:01:29.000 | All that being said, from what I know about Tesla, he was a good exemplar of deep work.

00:01:34.000 | He had social phobias. He did not like being around other people.

00:01:38.000 | He could focus intensely on a problem and made some really big breakthroughs,

00:01:42.000 | in particular breakthroughs about how to actually make alternating current practical,

00:01:48.000 | how you could actually build devices to run on alternating current.

00:01:52.000 | I mean, this is maybe getting a little bit in the weeds,

00:01:55.000 | but the advantage of direct current is that you can directly drive a motor.

00:01:59.000 | And driving a motor is one of the most important early applications of electricity because it replaced steam engines and factories.

00:02:07.000 | Alternating current, if you just hooked it up to a direct electromagnetic motor, would have the motor go back and forth, back and forth.

00:02:13.000 | So you actually had to invent a clever electrical apparatus that would allow the alternating current current to still drive a continuous motor forward.

00:02:22.000 | There's also some other work he did on transformers, etc.

00:02:25.000 | Anyways, great inventor, great example of someone who focused on being so good they couldn't be ignored,

00:02:33.000 | pushing the technology, pushing the technology.

00:02:37.000 | Clearly, he played a big role in Westinghouse's rise, the downfall of Edison, the rise of AC over DC current.

00:02:43.000 | So I like the question. Good example of Deep Ork.

00:02:47.000 | Don't know if he is the greatest inventor of all time, but he does have a car named after him, so that's not so bad.

00:02:53.000 | [MUSIC]

Was Tesla the Ultimate Deep Thinker? | Deep Questions Podcast with Cal Newport

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