Annie Jacobsen

He had his secretary on the line and gave this incredible interview.

And I asked him about his development of the laser.

But you want to hear – you might be interested in this.

So he –

is the guy who invented the laser.

I mean, when you really think about that.

And he told me, I said, well, who do you go to when you're having trouble when you're Charles Townes?

And he said, well, I took that particular idea to two colleagues, Einstein and von Neumann.

Okay, that's interesting.

I said, who said what?

And he said, this is when Townes was having trouble making it work.

And he said that Einstein said, keep trying.

And von Neumann said, it'll never work.

And I said, what do you make of that?

And he said, well, Einstein was very generous of spirit.

And he was always encouraging other scientists to think big and try.

And von Neumann was the kind of scientist who believed if he didn't come up with it, it probably wasn't a good idea.

But I love that because who else in the world has those two people that they run ideas by?

Fascinating.

Who you run ideas by, who I run ideas by, who Charles Townes.