I have come to suspect that to most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny enjoyed it. I even have the suspicion that he enjoyed almost nothing else.-- Edward Teller, eulogizing John von Neumann
Von Neumann seeded so many fields in his 53 years (1903-1957) that every time there was an important discovery in physics, mathematics or computation, he was there. His contributions include set theory, quantum mechanics, operator algebras, game theory, Monte Carlo method, stored-program computer architecture, numerical weather prediction, and more.
The Hungarian "cluster" of extraordinary minds (including von Neumann, Wigner, Teller, Szilard, Erdős) produced an outlier. Wigner called it the only phenomenon worthy of explanation: John von Neumann himself.
Budapest's welcoming environment for Jewish families, combined with rigorous schooling and math competitions, fostered these prodigies. Von Neumann's father ran evening seminars at the dinner table, and multilingual education prepared the boys for any future.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing