Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson, often referred to as one of today’s greatest living scientists, has a wonderful TED talk, Advice to Young Scientists, which is a taste of his 2014 book, Letters to a Young Scientist.
I enjoy listening to smart people across different disciplines sharing their wisdom. While this 14-minute piece is specifically science-related, it’s inspiring and can be applied across many aspects of life (as is the case with so many TED talks).
I’m going to take these three quotes out of context so that you can ponder them through your own filters and apply them to your own life… and of course, respond in the comments!
“Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.”
“Observe from a distance, but do not join the fray. Make a fray of your own.”
“The search is not for the solution of a problem, but for problems themselves worth solving.”
Do any of these resonate with you? How do they apply to the writing life?
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Hate to say this, Rachelle, but they don’t resonate with me at all. They bespeak a detachment that may suit the scientific mind, and perhaps the mind of the young, but not mine.
1) I don’t study anything for its own sake. I study it through the filter and with the light of my faith, and the second great commandment is “Love thy neighbour as thyself”. The only things worth doing are done for others.
2) I’ve seen too many higher-ups observe from a distance, and then send good men in to die. The battle before you is the one that owns you. Dig in, and fight. Death comes to all. You’re not special or precious.
3) There are a lot of problems that are unsolved. Fix them first. Looking for a new problem might make a name for a young scientist, but it won’t help the campesino whose ville has just been zippoed because he happens to go to church.
* My guiding quote comes from Al Sever – “There are no rights. Only responsibilities.”
* Second, from Sitting Bull – “Come on, Lakotas, it’s a good day to die!”
Carol Ashby
Andrew, you just identified the core difference between a scientist and an engineer.
Scientists, like me, love to study things for their own sake. Engineers love to burrow in and solve really difficult practical problems. I worked for years as a scientist among many engineers, so I see it as a diversity issue. Doing great engineering is more demanding. If a scientist gets 90% of the way to solving a science problem, that’s great. If an engineer doesn’t get to 100%, the truck on the new bridge goes into the river.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Guilty as charged, Carol! 🙂
* One of the differences I see in the two mindsets comes out in this forum sometimes, in the good versus great conundrum. I’ve often seen an expression like, “For writers, good enough is the enemy of great”.
* I respect that, but take the opposite view, that there is indeed a good enough in writing. This probably makes me a hack, and limits my potential. Still, it’s against my nature to polish words for their own sake. I get bored.
Ada Brownell
A Chrisitian today, especially a student, needs a discerning eye when it comes to science and scientists. That’s why I wrote the books Imagine the Future You and Facts Faith & Propaganda. Yet there are great believing scientists around.
I like Andrew’s idea of studying through the filter and with the light of his faith.
Nicholas Faran
They resonate with me perfectly. But then I studied astrophysics at university, and enjoyed it so much a went back for another go at a masters. 🙂
Even now, although I have left my scientific life well behind, at the top of my CV I claim to be a ‘problem solver’
Sounds like a good book 🙂
Shirlee Abbott
Two of our sons joined our family as school-age children. The older one often whined, “why do I have to learn this?” If we couldn’t give him a good answer, he didn’t put forth any effort. The younger one played without imagination; that is, there was no story line supporting it. I wondered just how the adults in their past squelched the curiosity out of their existence.
* I have a lower standard than Wilson. I say, “if it interests you, go for it.”
Carol Ashby
Here’s another unattributed quote shared among scientists and engineers.
Scientists ask why.
Engineers ask how.
Accountants ask how much.
Liberal arts majors ask, “Would you like fries with that, sir?”
Jeanne Takenaka
Grinning, Carol. 🙂
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
One ‘scientist’ quote I like comes from Arthur C. Clarke:
“If an elderly and distinguished scientist tells you something is possible, he’s probably right. If an elderly but distinguished scientist tells you something is impossible, he’s almost certainly wrong.”
* This comes out in publishing through the salient example of Beverly Lewis. What publishing guru, in the mid-80s, would have thought that someone could sell a gazillion novels centered around Amish life? The Harrison Ford/Kelly McGillis film “Witness” had kind of cracked the door, it’s true, but in the relatively prosperous middle and end of that decade very few would have foreseen that the plain and simple life would stir a yearning in so many hearts.
Jeanne Takenaka
I think the quote that resonated with me was the second one, about not joining the fray, but creating your own, and this is why.
*Too many times in the past, I’ve gotten sucked up into a fray for the wrong reason. Whether it was a desire for acceptance by a certain group of people, or because it was socially acceptable, those are wrong reasons to join a cause, or a “fray.”
*If I can make a “fray,” I would want it to be one that points people to Jesus in a way that is authentically me, if that makes sense. Rather than doing something because others are doing it, I would want to be doing what God has created me to do, in a way He’s created me to do it. With writing, I want to share stories and writings that point to the Lord, and even challenge people to think about Him in a different way.
*I don’t know if this makes sense. 🙂 But, you’ve got me thinking, Rachelle. And that’s a good thing.
Shelli Littleton
I think all the quotes remind us to be thinkers … to use this amazing brain we’ve been gifted. It’s so easy to get caught up in our small worlds, and want to keep it small … for comfort reasons. Open our eyes, think, share …. write about it.
Carol Ashby
Although I disagree with “observe from a distance” for a writer, I do resonate with “make a fray of your own.” Two and a half years ago, I was told publishers were not looking for my historical time period (the early Roman Empire) and weren’t likely to be any time soon. But the stories I felt called to write were all set around AD 100 in various provinces of the Empire, so I kept writing Roman. This spring, the movie “Risen” was a major commercial success. In two months, the blockbuster “Ben Hur” hits the theaters. I’m poised to ride the advertising coattails of a major studio that will pump up interest in my specialty, and I’ll have a Roman history author site starting with Ben-Hur-inspired topics. If I’d ignored God’s promptings to stay on course in my own fray, I wouldn’t be ready to capitalize on such a huge opportunity.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
#2 IS my husband, a sorta kinda gifted tree geneticist.
Most scientists with his longevity have 5 publications to their names, he has over 50.
With respect to the band of the same name, he really is the fray of his own making. He simply does not conform, and that mindset has served him and his team well.
Anyone needing help with cross-pollination? Just ask.
Since I write outside the box in terms of subject matter? He’s the perfect person to cheer me on. “Make the waves honey. Make your readers go where they haven’t been to think about the things they’ve never pondered.”
I couldn’t do this without him. Whenever I get worn down, he’s right there, helping me to shake things up and return to Fraytown, in the Land of the Different