The Year of Our Lord, 1934Location: The back room of an empty Parisian café, hidden from the public eye.Paul Dirac: (Quietly turning his tea spoon, staring into the dark liquid). It is quite ridiculous, Nikola. I wrote the entirety of my PhD thesis on quantum mechanics. A mere eleven papers prior. The committee said my mathematics were ‘unbalanced’ and my refusal to use unnecessary words in my defense was ‘insulting.’ One cannot simply write \(\frac{\partial \psi }{\partial t}\) and be expected to elaborate further when the equation is perfectly self-evident.Nikola Tesla: (Slamming his fist lightly on the zinc-top table, his eyes flashing). They operate on dogma, Paul. Dogma! When I was at the Graz Polytechnic, they called my ideas on alternating current ‘a perpetual motion scheme.’ They tossed my induction motor aside as if it were a child's toy. Even later, the professors in Prague dismissed my rotary field theories because they didn't fit into the established paradigms of Maxwell. They demand conformity, not progress.Paul Dirac: Exactly. They prefer flowery language over truth. I was once told that my writing lacked the 'poetic elegance' of older treatises. I replied that the aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way, whereas poetry aims to state simple things in an incomprehensible way. The two are utterly incompatible. They hated me for it.Nikola Tesla: They fear what they do not understand. They want to protect their cozy little club of entrenched theories. Do you know what they told me? They said my rejection of the electron and my contempt for relativity made me 'unfit' for a professorship. I do not care for their professorships. I build machines that pull power straight from the ether.Paul Dirac: Yes, building things is far more practical. I was offered an electrical engineering position early on and promptly realized that the theoretical foundations of the universe are much cleaner. But tell me, do you still obsessively do everything in threes?Nikola Tesla: (Pausing, looking around the café, taking exactly three napkins). Always.Paul Dirac: I find it logically sound. If an action is repeated, one might as well ensure the number is mathematically pristine. The academics would call it a neurosis. I call it precision.Nikola Tesla: (Raising his glass). To precision, Paul. And to being the smartest man alive, even if the universities are too blind to see it.Paul Dirac: (Nodding briefly). I should prefer they do not see me at all, but I will accept the toast.

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