> he discovered the planet was bigger than he had estimated Finding out you were wrong when everyone doubted you in the first place isn’t particularly impressi

> he discovered the planet was bigger than he had estimated Finding out you were wrong when everyone doubted you in the first place isn’t particularly impressive. Especially when we already knew the right answer over 1500 years before (Eratosthenes). I like the Moon analogy someone else shared on the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41835857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41835857 One doesn’t stop being an idiot because they struck gold under wrong assumptions. They just become a lucky idiot. > Columbus was also perhaps the greatest navigator who ever lived Highly debatable. We don’t even need to leave the peninsula to find another country (Portugal) with numerous examples of people who could fit that title.