3 ms·
I thought of "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he
by perl4ever 5y ago
I thought of "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
If anyone with experience says something can't be done, you shouldn't necessarily take it as the final word, but when someone says something can be done, or can be done better, that's where experience pays off.
- analog31 5y agoI had to look up the quote, it was by Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author. As a soon-to-be-elderly and yet-to-be-distinguished scientist, I don't think we have a good answer for what to do about the fact that at any given moment, our present-day knowledge might be wrong. I think that science and science fiction have different and irreconcilable approaches to that problem. In many cases, when I say something can't be done, rather than just leave it at that, I try to explain what parts I think are strictly impossible (this is actually rare), what parts are straightforward but require more effort than might be available, and what parts are likely to be legitimately hard due to the level of domain knowledge needed just to get started.
- cellularmitosis 5y agoShunryu Suzuki described a related notion: "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind, there are few." https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/285436-in-the-beginner-s-mind-there-are-many-possibilities-but-in https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/285436-in-the-beginner-s-mi...