Ever since I heard the name Albert Einstein, and learned of his works, I have been a great admirer. It has always fascinated me that someone could work out the fundamental laws of the universe with no more than a pen, some paper and his immense mind.

Einstein came up with theories that took decades of technological advancement to prove. His prediction that time moves more slowly for a person travelling in relation to another person standing still, was not yet completely proven, until two atomic clocks were measured. One while it was on the ground, and the other while it was flying on concord.

While finalising his Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein embarked on a quest to eliminate all trivial decisions out of his life. He felt that he had a finite amount of brain power, and that it was best used to discover the fundamental laws of nature.

Focus

CONDITIONS

You will make sure:

• that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;

• that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;

• that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.

• You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons.

• Specifically, You will forego:

• my sitting at home with you;

• my going out or travelling with you.

• You will obey the following points in your relations with me:

• you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;

• you will stop talking to me if I request it;

• you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

• You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.

These are the rather draconian terms and conditions that Albert Einstein set out in a contract to his first wife. The marriage was clearly doomed, however they both thought they would give it a go for the children's sake. As you'd expect the marriage ended a couple of months later, when Mileva Einstein-Maric; a brilliant physicist in her own right, left the marital home.

However we can begin to get a glimpse into Einstein's thinking regarding the use of his brain power, particularly the penultimate rule and the one just before it.

• you will stop talking to me if I request it;

• you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

Essentially, trying to work out how light is effected by gravity, and then trying to express that in mathematical terms, must be time consuming stuff, and Einstein started working out ways he could maximise the time he had.

Meaningless Fashion

If you look back far enough, you see pictures of Albert Einstein in a variety of different suits, some light, some dark, different cuts and so on.

However, after around 1914-15, he was only pictured in the suit that goes to make up the image that most people have of Einstein. This is because he realised that the mundanity of choosing what to wear each day, was eating up valuable thinking time.

He reasoned that if he bought several sets of clothes of exactly the same colour and design, he freed up some extra processing power. By eliminating choice, he elevated his thinking; something which I gave little thought to apart from the fact that I found it fascinating, and amusing, that is, until recently.

My Socks And The Path To Enlightenment

Like Colonel Kurtz, in Apocalypse Now, it hit me like a diamond bullet in the centre of the forehead. Leaving nothing but clarity.

As I sat in my bedroom, angrily ripping off yet another holey sock, I realised two things. One, I hadn't bought a pair of socks in at least 5 years, and two, I wasted a lot of time every day trying to find two socks of similar thickness (forget colour), without holes in them.

I seemed to have a huge amount of socks without having one complete, non-ripped pair. At this point, you may think to yourself; "But Cryptogee, you said you haven't bought a pair of socks in 5 years; surely this situation can't have just arisen?" And you'd be right, I would say that I have been in this similar sock situation for at least 3 of those 5 years, possibly more. Especially when you take into consideration that I said 5 years because I'm mildly embarrassed that it's in fact more.

The reason for my sudden epiphany was I was trying to think of something; a Steemit article no less that I had been writing in my head for a couple of days, and I was finally ready to let it come pouring forth onto the screen.

However my growing sock-rage was preventing me from doing that, and all I wanted to do was throw every last pair away.

So I did!

Not before finding two socks of similar thickness with only holes in the heels, as opposed to the toes; this is what I had been reduced to.

Sockvana

My nirvana, or rather sockvana, came when I decided to throw away any socks that either weren't pairs or had any holes in. Around 99.8%, let's call it all of them.

I then marched myself of to Primark (a cheap UK department store), and sought out the sock section. I found packs of five black socks; perfect!

Each pack of five was just £2, so I bought ten packs; I later went to a sports store and bought a further 20 pairs of trainer socks to use at the gym; all the same of colour of course. The effect on my life cannot be exaggerated; whilst my tongue is nestling in the never regions of my cheek. I can tell you with total honesty, that I genuinely feel closer to Einstein now.

No longer does my dread grow as I walk from bathroom to bedroom, knowing that the moment will come when I have to choose my socks.

Now, I have a sprightly step, as I sit down in front of my sock drawer, pull it open, and put two socks of the same thickness and colour onto my feet. If one does develop a hole, I throw it away, knowing that no matter how many times I do that, I will not upset the balance of my sock drawer.

"But wait Cryptogee! That will mean that you have an odd number of socks in your drawer, so it does through it out of balance you maniac!"

Yes, yes, but I don't have to wear them all at once, so it doesn't matter if their numbers are odd or even, as long as they're all the same thickness, colour and have no holes in them; my work here is done!

Aftermath

So that's it, done, end of story.... weellll....

I am seriously contemplating doing the same thing with the rest of my wardrobe, the fact is, I'm like most guys; in that I hate shopping for clothes, or in fact anything that causes me to walk around a too hot shop looking at stuff I mainly hate.

So I'm thinking of having a few "going out" clothes, and then just getting like 20 t-shirts, shirts, jumpers, jeans that are exactly the same.

I mean; why not? Who cares right?

DISCUS!

Cryptogee

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