Over the summer, I was at a get-together with business leaders and entrepreneurs. I was excited and nervous, but the night was fun.

I met a few interesting characters who were quick to talk about their past accomplishments. How young they were when they sold their business, how much money they made from online products, or their connections within technology and finance.

I let them blab but quickly exited the conversation when it was appropriate.

After the night ended, I started Googling some people I met, as one naturally does, but my motivations weren’t entirely pure.

Instead of trying to find out more about the people I met because I was curious, I wanted to see how wide the gap was between people’s descriptions of their accomplishments and their *actual* accomplishments.

The gap can be quite wide.

Nobody outright lied about anything, and I wouldn’t have cared if they did, but it was interesting to see what details someone omitted from their descriptions.

This made me think about the impression you leave on someone after they Google you. Typically, a “digital footprint” is seen as a bad thing: something from your college fraternity years that you have to hide from future employers. But in this case, it allowed me to understand the gap between what someone *said* they did versus what they *actually* did and how that altered my impression of them long after the conversation ended.

The best types of people to talk to, and those who you want to stay friends with and do business with, are those who, after you meet and Google them, your expectations are blown away. “Wow! I can’t believe I just talked to the founder or CEO of XYZ Incorporated, and they didn’t say anything to me about it!” Or, “She’s written like five books about topic ABC and didn’t mention it, but we talked about it all night long!”

I’m not saying they’re cocky or braggadocios just because some talks about their accomplishments. Instead, I’m saying there should be a few red flags that go up when someone constantly exaggerates their achievements.


Who are you when someone Googles you?

“Oppenheimer” was incredible. I’d watch it a hundred more times. The storytelling and cinema was top-notch of course, but that’s to be expected with a Nolan film.

Some Manhattan Project nerds will be disappointed that there wasn’t much emphasis on Los Alamos or the actual creation of the bomb, but this is no different than in *[American Prometheus](https://www.dltn.io/blog/notes-american-prometheus-by-kai-bird-amp-martin-j-sherwin)*, the fantastic book the movie is based on. The climax of the book is the security clearance trial, not the atom bomb. Though those criticisms are fair, because it would be great to have a good Manhattan Project movie, I more appreciated the historical accuracy and the lines of dialogue that were taken straight from the book.

Some examples (spoiler alert, obviously...but also we all know how it ends):

### **The apple**

Yes, a young Robert did try to poison his professor, Patrick Blackett. No, the professor never did eat it, and the “poison” was most likely not actually cyanide, as that would have killed him. “More likely,” the author writes, “Robert had laced the apple with something that merely would have made Blackett sick; but this still a serious matter–and grounds for expulsion.” Thanks to Robert’s father’s persuasion of the school, Robert faced no consequences other than probation and having to see a psychiatrist. Niels Bohr almost eating the apple was a dramatization, but a good one nonetheless. That part of the scene didn’t actually happen.

### **Feynman’s bongos**

The actor who played Richard Feynman had a scary resemblance to the man himself. Like, multiple times I thought, “That’s actually Feynman.”

Before the Trinity test, while an Army officer is passing around a piece of glass to act as sunglasses for the blast, Feynman declines. This happened in real life. He writes in *[Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman](https://www.dltn.io/blog/surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman-by-richard-p-feynman)*:

> They gave out dark glasses that you could watch it with. Dark glasses! Twenty miles away, you couldn’t see a damn thing through dark glasses. So I figured the only thing that could really hurt your eyes (bright light can never hurt your eyes) is ultraviolet light. I got behind a truck windshield, because the ultraviolet can’t go through glass, so that would be safe, and so I could see the damn thing.
> 

After the Trinity test, while everyone is celebrating, you see Richard Feynman on top of his car playing the bongos. This happened as well.

> After the thing went off, there was tremendous excitement at Los Alamos…I sat on the end of a jeep and beat drums and so on.
> 

### **Damnit, I happen to love this country**

Though these words weren’t actually spoken to Einstein, as happens in the movie, Oppie did say them. It was to George Kennan in the 1950s, as Kennan explains Oppenheimer’s funeral:

> In the dark days of the early fifties, when troubles crowded in upon him from many sides and when he found himself harassed by his position at the center of controversy, I drew his attention to the fact that he would be welcomed in a hundred academic centers abroad and asked him whether he had not thought of taking residence outside this country. His answer, given to me with tears in his eyes: ‘Damn it, I happen to love this country.’
> 

In a footnote to that quote, the author writes:

> Kennan was deeply moved by Oppenheimer’s emphatic reaction. In 2003, Kennan’s hundredth-birthday party, he retold this story–and this time there were tears in his eyes.
> 

### **Bohr’s ‘Prometheus’ Line**

This didn’t actually happen, but I appreciated Nolan’s nod to the book title. The exact scene slips my mind, but I think it was Bohr (or maybe Teller), who warned Oppenheimer that has become the “American Prometheus.” That line wasn’t needed nor required by Nolan to write, but it was a clear nod to the book that inspired the film, and to nerds like me who loved the book, gave me chills.

What Actually Happened in Oppenheimer

Today was a day well spent.

I’m always changing my daily schedule around to find what works best. It seems like there are never enough hours in the day, so I’m always looking for the routine that will fit my to do list the best, and today went well.

I woke up at 5:00am, which is nothing new. But instead of reading, I worked on typing up my book notes. I liked doing this in the morning because it’s productive and it’s writing, plus, these notes usually provide content for [my newsletter](https://221b.substack.com/).

At 6:00, I washed my face, fixed my hair, and got ready for the day. Then I worked on my work tasks for two hours.

At 8:00, I made breakfast, took my dog for a walk, and then got back to work until 10:00.

At 10:00, I took another short break for a cup of coffee and then worked again until 12:00.

At this point, I’d gotten more done before noon that it feels like I get done in a few days.

At noon, I made some oatmeal for lunch and then coded on a side-project for awhile.

At 2:00pm, I rode my bike to a coffee shop, ordered a decaf americano, and read until 3:45pm. This was quite pleasant. I cut my reading short because it started to rain and I didn’t know how long it would last, so I wanted to ride home before it started raining too hard.

When I got home, I worked some more until about 6:00, made dinner, and then read a few articles and watched videos on Henry Kissinger. I’m interested in where the career as an academic/politician/statesman/author came from. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find much about Kissinger’s writing habits (and I haven’t been able to find much about Churchill’s either).

The day was great because after 12:00pm, I had done all the “real” work I needed to do that day. The rest of the day I could read, code, and write. Plus, I could be in bed by 8:00pm (which I try to do every night), without having to sacrifice anything I wanted to do that day. Often, I feel like, “Man I really wish I got X done today.”

Here’s to more days well spent because a collection of days well spent is a life well lived.


miscellany