Re: dealing with fickle success

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 11:21 PM 10/5/99 -0400, Hugh Haskell wrote in part:

> It sure isn't clear what's useful and what isn't before the work is
> done,

Agreed.  It's not clear.  But that doesn't mean we should just give up.
There are various degrees here:
  a) Not knowing for sure beforehand whether it will be useful.
  b) Not caring whether it's useful.
  c) Actively choosing useless projects.

Item (a) is typical.
Item (b) is unwise.
Item (c) is perverted.

> I know that as long as others pay for most
> research, these questions will have to be addressed,

Right.

> but it is clear
> that the people who fund research are almost always wrong in deciding
> what is useful and what is not when we talk about basic research.
> That is because they tend to favor propositions that stay well within
> the current paradigm, and we know that the advances in science come
> when we are able to move outside that boundary. And since outside the
> boundary we often have absolutely no idea what will happen, I don't
> see how we could call any of those "useful" before the fact.

Absolutely no idea?  That's an exaggeration and a cop-out.  There are
certain areas of investigation that are incomparably more *likely* to
produce useful conseqences.

> Most of the time, my
> triumphs are tiny and maybe not even unique. But the fact that I
> understand something that I perhaps didn't a few minutes before is
> enough. I don't care if anyone else knows and many times I don't even
> tell anyone. Its my triumph and I want to keep it that way.

I marvel at your ability to derive contentment from such tiny triumphs.
But I would not be content with that.  I want to do something more inspired
and inspiring.

You said "most of the time".  It's true that *most* of the time when I go
to bat, I strike out.  But I'm not content with striking out, and I
wouldn't hire someone who was content with striking out.  That's not why I
go to bat.  I go to bat because I want to hit it out of the park as often
as I can.


______________________________________________________________
copyright (C) 1999 John S. Denker             jsd@monmouth.com