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Tell HN: Two quotes regarding Tesla
Hey guys,
I've been reading Margaret Cheney's "Tesla: Man out of time", which is a wonderful biography of the prolific inventor Nikola Tesla, and there were two quotes that really blew my mind and I thought you guys would appreciate it.
At one point, Tesla's lab catches on fire and burns down, and all his equipment and notes are destroyed. He is devastated, and later on he says that the "loss could not be measured," but Charles Dana of the New York Sun had this to say on the topic:
* "The destruction of Nikola Tesla's workshop, with its wonderful contents, is something more than a private calamity. It is a misfortune to the whole world. It is not in any degree an exaggeration to say that the men living at this time who are more important to the human race than this young gentleman can be counted on the fingers of one hand; perhaps on the thumb of one hand." *
That's insane. Can you imagine working on the kind of things that put you at the pinnacle of people "more important to the human race"! That is absolutely insane. I look at the kind of stuff posted here and on TC/Endgadget and those kind of sites, and most of the stuff we read about doesn't even come close to the kinds of things Tesla was working on. In today's world, what are the things that are "most important to the human race"? How do you even judge that?
The other tremendous quote was by Tesla himself. A reporter was interviewing him when he dropped this gem:
"I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success…Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything."
I think when you have those kind of feelings, you know you're on to something. A real inspiration to all of us.
- dack 14y agoSince I've just gone through Elon Musk's wikipedia entry following the SpaceX success, I think he's a good nominee. He seems to have been focused on improving humanity since college and actually has the means to do it. I can't even read most of the Hacker News articles after reading about the things he is working on. Who cares about unit testing CSS when you could be building a fucking rocket to space?
- lumberjack 14y ago"The destruction of Nikola Tesla's workshop, with its wonderful contents, is something more than a private calamity. It is a misfortune to the whole world. It is not in any degree an exaggeration to say that the men living at this time who are more important to the human race than this young gentleman can be counted on the fingers of one hand; perhaps on the thumb of one hand." I can't relate to this remark. Whenever I've been working on a project for a long time it becomes ingrained in my memory just like any other long running experience would.
- namank 14y agoI look at the kind of stuff posted here and on TC/Endgadget and those kind of sites, and most of the stuff we read about doesn't even come close to the kinds of things Tesla was working on. In today's world, what are the things that are "most important to the human race"? How do you even judge that? This is excellent, please report back. But don't let this deter your from building the small things like a jquery testing framework. One framework at a time, thats how actually you get to building things that matter.