This curiously reminds of "You and Your Research" posted here yesterday: http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html The Nobe

This curiously reminds of "You and Your Research" posted here yesterday: http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html The Nobel Prize committee, for instance, has to pick a handful prizewinners out of hundreds of first-class scientists. The ones that don't get picked are still first-class, but if the "Nobel Prize Effect" holds true, the ones that do receive the prize are the ones who don't sustain first-class work. Of course this works differently for a sports team, because the feedback of your efforts are more or less immediate (from game winnings). But for things like startups then, if we really digest both these articles, I'd say the Nobel Prize analogy holds better. The ones who experience failure, or a lack of success, and obstinately jab at their problems, will still make a big kill. And the rejects are always far more numerous. For every Nobelist, there are probably a thousand others doing comparable work. I once met a scientist who was considered Nobel-worthy. He came off mostly as a grumpy old man though, because he kept lamenting how his classmate got one but he didn't. If I was half as intelligent as him I would be doing cutting edge research as a hobby! Perhaps the world is better now that he didn't get the prize.