(cdibble at umd dot edu)
Theory provides the maps that turn an uncoordinated set of experiments or computer simulations into a cumulative exploration.
Booker, David Goldberg, John Holland (1981)
The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that marks the man of genius in the scientific world.
Sir Henry Tizard
Always the more beautiful answer who asks the more beautiful question.
EE Cummings, I: Six Non-Lectures
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Chopin
You know you've achieved perfection in design,
Not when you have nothing more to add,
But when you have nothing more to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
This problem, too, will look simple after it is solved.
Charles Francis Kettering
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
BIX (BYTE Information Exchange)
Thinking is the hardest work there is. Which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
Henry Ford
The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.
Celia Green
...there is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap. But the difference is that once you've made the intuitive leap you have to justify it by filling in the intermediate steps. In my case, it often happens that I have an idea, but then I try to fill in the intermediate steps and find that they don't work, so I have to give it up.
Stephen W. Hawking
Einstein's three rules of work:
- Out of clutter find simplicity.
- From discord make harmony.
- In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein
It is not always possible to know what one has learned, or when the dawning will arrive. You will continue to shift, sift, to shake out and to double back. The synthesis that finally occurs can be in the most unexpected place and the most unexpected time. My charge ... is to be alert to the dawnings.
Virginia B. Smith
Watson, J.D. (1993)
"Succeeding in Science: Some Rules of Thumb"
Science 24Sep93, pages 1812-1813.
From his talk given 2 March 1993 at Cold Spring Harbor in honor of 40th anniversary of Watson/Crick discovery of the DNA double helix.
...you have to combine intelligence with a willingness not to follow conventions when they block your path forward.
And in the game of science--or life--the highest goal isn't simply to win, it's to win at something really difficult. Put another way, it's to go somewhere beyond your ability and come out on top.
If you are going to make a big jump in science, you will very likely be unqualified t o succeed by definition.
Your very willingness to take on a very big goal will offend some people who will think that you are too big for your britches and crazy to boot.
Often it entails rejecting your mentor, your lab head, or your department chairman. But to get where you want to go, you even have to be prepared to give up your second parents.
...that brings up another reason for having people around who care about you--you have to have people you can go to for intellectual help.
Constantly exposing your ideas to informed criticism is very important.
...it's very hard to succeed in science if you don't want to be with other scientists--you have to go to key meetings where you may spot key facts that would have escaped you. And you have to chat with your competitors.
(cdibble at umd dot edu)