But remember, Von Neumannn was pronounced, by a peer, to be smarter than Albert Einstein to his face and got no objection.
This is talking about intelligence, which I think von Neumann did appreciate, but he was worried about his overall legacy or achievement, due to lack of sufficient creativity. See this passage from Wikipedia:
Ulam suggests that some of his self-doubts with regard for his own creativity may have come from the fact he had not discovered several important ideas that others had, even though he was more than capable of doing so, giving the incompleteness theorems and Birkhoff’spointwise ergodic theorem as examples. Von Neumann had a virtuosity in following complicated reasoning and had supreme insights, yet he perhaps felt he did not have the gift for seemingly irrational proofs and theorems or intuitive insights.
So instead of “he never appreciated his own capabilities” I would say he actually exhibited an impressive level of metacognition and self-awareness.
This is talking about intelligence, which I think von Neumann did appreciate, but he was worried about his overall legacy or achievement, due to lack of sufficient creativity. See this passage from Wikipedia:
So instead of “he never appreciated his own capabilities” I would say he actually exhibited an impressive level of metacognition and self-awareness.