Page 201 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

greatest physicists who ever lived—which ultimately made it difficult for him to
think intelligently about physics.
Bohr was so respected as the genius who had intuited quantum theory that
his thinking was considered unassailable. This meant that he could no longer
brainstorm with others. No matter what cockamamie idea Bohr might propose,
the other physicists working on the bomb would ooh and ahh over it as if it were
something sacred.

Bohr handled this challenge in an intriguing way.
Richard Feynman, as it turned out, was good at not being intimidated by
other people—at simply doing physics, no matter who he was with. He was so
good that he became Bohr’s ace in the hole. Feynman was at that time just a
youngster in the crowd of hundreds of prominent physicists at Los Alamos. But
he was singled out by Bohr to do private brainstorming together before Bohr

would meet with the other physicists. Why? Feynman was the only one who
wasn’t intimidated by Bohr and who would tell Bohr that some of his ideas were
foolish. 9

Niels Bohr lounging with Albert Einstein in 1925.