Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim described von Neumann as the "fastest mind I ever met", and Jacob Bronowski wrote "He was the cleverest man I ever knew, without exception. He was a genius." George Pólya, whose lectures at ETH Zürich von Neumann attended as a student, said "Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of. If in the course of a lecture I stated an unsolved problem, the chances were he'd come to me at the end of the lecture with the complete solution scribbled on a slip of paper." Halmos recounts a story told by Nicholas Metropolis, concerning the speed of von Neumann's calculations, when somebody asked von Neumann to solve the famous fly puzzle:
Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim described von Neumann as the " fastest mind I ever met " , and Jacob Bronowski wrote " He was the cleverest man I ever knew , without exception . He was a genius . " George Pólya , whose lectures at ETH Zürich von Neumann attended as a student , said " Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of . If in the course of a lecture I stated an unsolved problem , the chances were he 'd come to me at the end of the lecture with the complete solution scribbled on a slip of paper . " Halmos recounts a story told by Nicholas Metropolis , concerning the speed of von Neumann 's calculations , when somebody asked von Neumann to solve the famous fly puzzle :
What did Lecturer Polya think about von Nuemann?
What did Lecturer Polya think about von Nuemann ?
Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of.
Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of.