"As a somewhat precocious young man,
I was struck by the futility of the hopes and the endeavors that most men chase
restlessly throughout life. And I soon realized the cruelty of that chase, which
in those days was more carefully disguised with hypocrisy and glittering words than
it is today."
After Einstein graduated with an
undistinguished record, he made a number of efforts to get a university job,
and failed. He found only occasional jobs on the periphery of the academic world.
He felt he was a burden on his none too prosperous family, and wondered if he had
been mistaken in trying to become a physicist. Finally he got a position at the
Swiss Patent Office in Bern. It was "a kind of salvation," he said. The regular
salary and the stimulating work evaluating patent claims freed Einstein. He now
had time to devote his thought to the most basic problems of physics of his time,
and began to publish scientific papers.
Einstein's closest friend, with whom
he walked home from the Patent Office every day, was Michele Besso. Einstein
thought him "the best sounding board in Europe" for scientific ideas. With other
friends in Bern, all unknown to the academic world, Einstein met regularly to read
and discuss books on science and philosophy. They called themselves the Olympia
Academy, mocking the official bodies that dominated science.
Einstein's began to attract respect with his published papers (described in
the next section),
and in 1909 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Zurich.
He was also invited to present his theories before the annual convention of
German scientists. He met many people he had known only through their writings,
such as the physicist Max Planck of Berlin. Soon Einstein was invited to the
German University in Prague as full professor. Here he met a visiting Austrian
physicist, Paul Ehrenfest. "Within a few hours we were true friends," Einstein
recalled, "as though our dreams and aspirations were made for each other."