First Blog

The short answer is, “Who knows. Ask one.” However, there are markers I’ve noticed over many years having worked with and read about a few of them. a. Finding the “genius” solution is more than just picking up the right pebble on the beach. It is rejecting what doesn’t work. Researching a topic means sifting and winnowing idea after idea. The  genius can reject the bad ideas quickly  and move on. There is an anecdote about John von Neumann, who worked on the “Super,” H-bomb, and with the military. The report is that some engineers were working on a project for months, and one day handed it to von Neumann. He rifled through the pages for a few minutes, looked up and said it wouldn’t work. After months more of work, the engineers concluded, it doesn’t work. This is legend to the point that, “If Johnny says it will work or not, that is it.” BTW, Von Neumann was considered the best mathematician of the 20th century. Johnny had a great memory and one night at a party he got into an argum

You think of a good idea.  You try the new idea. The new idea fails totally. A. You can say, "This sucks," and dump the new idea. B. The politician with the same idea cannot.  They will double down and say either it does work or will work, and especially, we need more money to make it work better.  The hapless politician has not the luxury of dumping something they create.  So, why? 1. Why?  Because opponents will excoriate them, and people will believe them, and then not vote for them. 2. Why? Because people are simplistic computing machines accepting everything at face value. 3. Why? Because our education system simply does not teach critical thinking but superficially jumping to the next fad. 4. Why? Because the colleges don't teach anymore. They merely transfer talking points.  5. Why? Because college teachers are busy with their research or fear repudiation by irate students. 6. Why? Because their parents hover above their kids trying to protect them at

Lemmings.   Suppose we have an important subject whose practitioners are all relatively mediocre. Research from these people will correspondingly be mediocre.  However, some of it will catch on - as always happens.  Many will gravitate toward this line of thinking and propagate more research along these lines.  It will become the mainstream mode of thinking.  Then, after a long time, the ideas will not prove valid; they will be proved absolutely incorrect.  What happens is that a new equally invalid idea will replace it, and it will catch on.  The cycle repeats.  The net result is this important subject will never progress, but will leap from one incorrect paradigm to another. There is such a subject in this world.  You might justly think government - my preferred choice, but that is too obvious.