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| secret of success ... do whatever can be done to avoid losing |
John von Neumann (1903-57), the father of the modern digital computer, loved toys and playing games for fun, so much so that he compiled an immense library of jokes which he used to liven up a conversation. Undoubtedly this passion contributed to his important work in Game Theory where he determined that the secret of success was not to aim to win, but to do whatever can be done to avoid losing. Not so much fun were his crucial calculations on the implosion design of the atomic bomb, affording a more efficient, deadly weapon. In the end he lost, succumbing at 54 to bone cancer attributed to radiation exposure to the atomic tests on Bikini atoll.
Richard Feynman, noted nobel physicist known for his work in the formulation of quantum mechanics and the theory of quantum electrodynamics, also died from cancer attributed to an effect of the work he did at Los Alamos on the atom bomb in 1940s. He was 68.
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