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Well this was a bit of shoddy history of science that was aggressively waved in my face by a writer who very eager to get to the sequel, whose title one may su
by SiempreViernes 5y ago
Well this was a bit of shoddy history of science that was aggressively waved in my face by a writer who very eager to get to the sequel, whose title one may suspect will contain the words "I", "genius" and little else...
I mean, one of the things Newton famously wrote was "if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." which isn't entirely in the spirt of the long genius myth.
And if Galileo is allowed into the genius pantheon, what to do with the little episode where he convinced the contemporary world that comets were actually just clouds...
- notriddle 5y agoGalileo was famous for being a martyr, not a genius.
- abz10 5y agoDidn’t Galileo recant and it was his assistant who was killed?
- rogersbacon17 5y agoAuthor here - Very fair that I was being overly contrarian/aggressive but I'm not sure if this invalidates what I think was clearly the point of the article (but maybe not clear). Inspirational stories and cultural narratives matter, especially to young talented thinkers who face challenging circumstances/criticism. Sure this may only matter on the margins, but in a modern science that is increasingly a crapshoot in terms of individual success, we want scientists who have confidence in themselves to think individually. As other commenters pointed out working in a team is not the same as working by yourself, they lead to distinct forms of thinking/working that have their own strengths/weaknesses. Science requires more teamwork than ever, that's necessary and a good thing but that doesn't mean there are costs.
- rogersbacon17 5y agoAlso why does the fact that Galileo thought some crazy shit mean that he wasn't a genius?