In 1915, shortly after finishing his paper on the theory of general relativity that would

propel him into science history, Albert Einstein wrote to his oldest child:
You can also learn many good and beautiful things from me ... These days I have
completed one of the most beautiful works of my life, when you are bigger, I will tell you
about it
"Play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those.
That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such
enjoyment that you dont notice that the time passes.
Albert Einstein (18791955) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 'for his
services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the
photoelectric effect'.
---
Story via Brain Pickings and "Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children"
(2004) edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson