Einstein’s genius wasn’t just mathematical — it was emotional.

He imagined himself riding on a beam of light.
That single, intuitive act — picturing what it would feel like* to move at light speed — birthed the theory of relativity and reshaped our understanding of the universe.

He didn’t just measure the universe.
He felt it.

We often talk about Einstein’s IQ as if it were the only source of his brilliance. But what if his EQ — his emotional intelligence — was the real engine of innovation?

His famous question, “What would it feel like to ride on a beam of light?”, wasn’t an equation. It was an act of empathy — a leap into experience.

That moment represents a kind of intelligence that can’t be tested with numbers: the ability to inhabit an idea, to feel its truth before you can prove it.

He didn’t just observe the world; he entered it.

The idea of IQ — intelligence quotient — was born in the early 1900s, when psychologists like Alfred Binet tried to quantify reasoning and problem-solving. For nearly a century, IQ defined intelligence as something measurable, logical, and static.

But in 1990, the same year I started kindergarten, researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer introduced a new concept: emotional intelligence (EQ) — the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others.

That timing has always struck me.
I grew up in a world that was only just beginning to name the kind of intelligence I intuitively lived by.

I’ve never tested well on standardized exams, but I’ve always understood people, systems, and emotional undercurrents. I can often sense what’s true before I can explain why. That’s EQ — perceiving the world through empathy and synthesis rather than through calculation alone.

It took decades for society to realize that emotional understanding is intelligence.

My boyfriend and I are polar opposites.
He is deeply logical — a linear thinker, anchored in the concrete. I’m a creative, anchored in abstraction.

When we communicate, we sometimes live on different planets. He speaks in steps, and I think in symbols. But through my training as a librarian, communicator, and information scientist, I learned how to organize my intuition — how to translate abstraction into something others can process.

That’s where the bridge lives: between the emotional and the analytical, between how we think and how we understand.

I’ve learned that the goal isn’t to choose one mode of thinking over the other.
It’s to recognize that both are vital — and that building that bridge is the real work of communication, leadership, and love.

That same bridge is what our workplaces need, too — especially in human service and creative fields.

High-functioning teams depend on emotional literacy: the capacity to listen, empathize, and manage conflict with compassion. In libraries, nonprofits, classrooms, and studios, the work is the people.

You can’t spreadsheet compassion.
You can’t automate trust.
You can only practice it — through emotionally intelligent leadership and social learning.

These are not “soft skills.”
They’re structural competencies — the foundation of every organization that wants to thrive in a complex, human world.

Every so often, scientists add a leap second to our clocks — a tiny correction to keep human time aligned with the Earth’s rotation.

Einstein’s thought experiment was a leap second for humanity — a moment when imagination caught up to mathematics.

Maybe empathy works the same way:
a small, intuitive leap that realigns us with what truly matters.

Einstein’s mind gave us the math,
but his empathy gave us the meaning.

And in our own work — whether in science, storytelling, or service — we need both.

Because the next great discovery won’t come from data alone.
It’ll come from someone brave enough to feel an idea before they can prove it.

✍️ Author Bio

Jen Baxter is the Founder of The Common Collective, an independent nonprofit civic organization dedicated to truth, connection, and courage. A veteran public-sector and nonprofit leader with 15+ years of experience, she brings a unique perspective to civic storytelling, organizational design, and leadership rooted in empathy and impact.

Until next time,

Guiding Principles 

People first | Transparency | Equity | Creativity | Accountability | Joy
www.thecollectivestories.org