The Success Conundrum
24 February 2011
A great conundrum facing nearly everybody at some point in their lives is: do you completely change what you're doing - even if it means a drop in the measurements you gauge success by?
Let's Get Historical
24 February 2011
People often don't realise they're making history when they're making history. But people who think they're making history are usually just making news headlines.
Near Field Stupidity Generators
23 February 2011
The prodigy in question, Freeman Dyson, now middle-aged, stared ahead, his incessant concentration on the road unbroken. He seemed mesmerised by the oncoming pavement, or by some idea or formulation glimpsed in the immateriality beyond the pavement. I asked him whether as a boy he had speculated much about his gift. Had he asked himself why he had this special power? Why he was so bright?
Dyson is almost infallibly a modest and self-effacing man, but tonight his eyes were blank with fatigue, and his answer was uncharacteristic.
"That's not how the question phrases itself," he said. "The question is: why is everyone else so stupid?"
The interesting thing about a particularly insightful person, or the particularly talented person, is that this is often the way the question phrases itself. They don't think, initially at least:
Wow! I'm splendid at this!
They think ...
Egad, why is everybody so crap at this?
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