I write daily threads about the greatest minds on philosophy, science, and history. Follow @GeniusGTX to celebrate the human genius.
One Genius Away.
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Jul 2 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
In 1944, the U.S. Los Alamos atomic bomb project faced a security nightmare.
It wasn't a German spy or Soviet agent, but from one of their most trusted leader...
In 5 minutes, here's how Richard Feynman exposed over 20 years of fatal loopholes in the US security: 🧵
In 1943, the Army hired Richard Feynman.
He was only 24 years old.
His job: help build the atomic bomb and beat Hitler to the punch.
And despite his youth...
Feynman was already a Princeton math star.
Jun 19 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
John von Neumann (190 IQ) was smarter than Einstein (160 IQ)
Einstein called him "the smartest person I know."
Yet most people have never heard his name.
Here's the forgotten story of John von Neumann, one of history's most important geniuses: 🧵
He was born in Budapest in 1903.
By 6 years old, he could:
• Memorize entire pages of books at a glance
• Do complex division faster than adults with paper
• Speak fluent Greek and Latin
His father called him a “living calculator.” Teachers were in awe.
Jun 15 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
They called him the smartest con artist...
• Forged $2.5M before 21.
• Outsmarted the FBI for 4 years.
• Faked being a pilot, doctor, & lawyer.
Hollywood told his story to millions, but left out the best part...
These are his 3 best strategies to break any system: 🧵
In an interview with 60 Minutes , Frank Abagnale revealed something shocking:
"I wasn't brilliant. I wasn't a genius.
I was just a 16-year-old kid with no fear."
He understood systems better than the adults who built them.
Here're his 3 best strategies:
Jun 13 • 21 tweets • 7 min read
They said this man can't be human...
• Spoke 6 languages fluently by age 6
• Remembered every word he ever read
• Genius behind the Manhattan atomic bomb
If you think Einstein was smart, John von Neumann would blow your mind: 🧵
By age 6, most kids are learning their ABCs.
Johnny von Neumann was thought to be alien:
• Dividing 8-digit numbers in his head
• Memorizing phone books for fun
• Speaking 6 languages fluently
His parents thought something was wrong with him.
They were right...
Jun 11 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
The CIA is the top intelligence organization in the world.
But in 2015, ONE prank call from a 15-year-old kid in his bedroom almost made them trigger a global cyberwar.
Here's how it happened...🧵
Meet Cracka.
At 15, he was already a seasoned hacker.
His biggest hack? Wiping out millions in student debt from a medical school's servers with one click.
What a legend!
Jun 9 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
In 1955, Einstein died in Princeton Hospital.
7 hours later, his brain was stolen.
For 40 years, Einstein's brain sat in a cedar box under a beer cooler.
Here's the bizarre journey and 5 biggest discoveries behind Einstein's brain: 🧵
April 18, 1955. 1:15 AM.
Einstein takes his final breath.
By 8:00 AM, Dr. Thomas Harvey had already cut open his skull.
The brain was gone...
Jun 7 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
This 2-year-old kid once ruled 1/3 of the world's population...
• Kidnapped at 2.
• Worshipped as a living god
• Controlled an empire of 400 million people.
This is not clickbait. Not a metaphor. Not exaggerated.
Here's the bizarre story of China's last emperor:🧵
Beijing, 1908. Just after nightfall.
A mysterious group leaves the Forbidden City.
Guards. Officials.
An armed escort.
They arrive at a mansion and find a 2-year-old boy hiding in a cupboard.
He screams. He fights. He has no idea he just became emperor of China...
Jun 5 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
400+ cartoons.
3 years in the US secret military unit.
11 million soldiers manipulated for WWII.
Before teaching kids to read,
Dr. Seuss was training soldiers to kill.
This is how one man changed how America saw war, power, and influence: 🧵 1943. Hollywood goes to war.
Theodor Seuss Geisel reports for duty as Captain Geisel, U.S. Army.
His assignment: Frank Capra's propaganda unit, the First Motion Picture Unit.
Jun 3 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Historians buried this story for centuries.
In 1518, an entire city lost control of their bodies...
The cause? Something far more mysterious than any disease.
Welcome to the Dancing Plague and its 500-year-old mystery: 🧵
July 14, 1518. Strasbourg, Holy Roman Empire.
Frau Troffea stepped into the cobblestone street and began to dance.
No music. No celebration. No reason.
Just uncontrollable movement.
What happened next would baffle medicine for 500 years...
May 25 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
The most courageous officer in military history:
Stanislav Petrov.
He defied Soviet protocol, ignored 5 missile alerts, and prevented WW3 with a single decision.
Here's how one man's judgment saved billions of lives:🧵
Midnight in a secret Soviet bunker, 100 meters underground.
Lieutenant Stanislav Petrov mans his station at Serpukhov-15, monitoring for nuclear attacks.
It's just another quiet night shift.
Until...
May 21 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
This is Arthur Conan Doyle.
Author of Sherlock Holmes.
Everyone thought the spy techniques used were fictional...
But for decades, they were studied by the CIA, MI6, and spies.
Here's the story behind the world's greatest detective
—with examples: 🧵
In 1927, Vernon Kell, founder of MI5, admitted that his agents studied Holmes stories for techniques.
But how did it start?
Let's travel back in time before diving into some of the techniques disguised in Sherlock Holmes:
May 19 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
In 1945, the US started kidnapping scientists from defeated Germany.
They were war criminals who built Hitler's rockets...
But overnight, they became America's heroes helping NASA put men on the moon.
Here's the full story: 🧵
US Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) arrived in Germany before the war ended in May 1945.
Their mission:
Grab German rocket experts before the Soviets could...
May 16 • 28 tweets • 8 min read
This is John Nash.
He's the genius behind Game Theory.
His ideas influenced Einstein, Russell, and won him a Nobel Prize in 1994.
Sadly, his legacy is a heartbreaking tragedy.
Here's his story... 🧵
Born in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1928, John Forbes Nash Jr. was a math prodigy.
By 15, he read E.T. Bell's "Men of Mathematics" and could prove advanced theorems...
May 14 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
The most important but also most controversial archaeological discovery by far:
The Dead Sea Scrolls.
They've started wars, rewrote history books, and challenged humanity's deepest beliefs.
Here's what these ancient texts reveal: 🧵
Muhammad edh-Dhib was hunting for his lost goat near the shores of the Dead Sea.
He spotted a cave in the cliffs of Qumran.
Inside he found clay jars with leather and papyrus scrolls wrapped in linen...
May 13 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
In 1994, archaeologists found a 7,000-year-old temple so strange they almost buried it again.
The Göbekli Tepe was by prehistoric hunter-gatherers without metal, tools, or language.
If you think the Pyramid was impressive, this would blow your mind: 🧵
For centuries, locals in Anatolia called it "Potbelly Hill" - just a 50-meter mound where sheep grazed.
In 1963, researchers from the University of Chicago and Istanbul University dismissed it as a medieval cemetery.
Schmidt saw something in their reports that didn't look right...
May 12 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
A "cognitive bias" is a systematic error in thinking that ruins decision-making.
This took me years to learn—I'll teach you in 2 minutes.