Seed magazine asks:
If you only had a single statement to pass onto others summarizing the most vital lesson to be drawn from your work, what would it be?
The question originated from Richard Feynman’s Lectures on Physics, where he asked:
“If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?”
Feynman’s answer:
“… all things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.”
Excellent answer. Huh? Perhaps the best answer for a physicist.
Seed asked eleven other scientists to answer this question.
Jill Tarter chose to quote Carl Sagan for her answer:
‘We are made of star stuff.’
I like that one quite a bit, too.
I’m not a scientist, but as a novelist, I’ve been thinking about the most vital lesson that could be drawn from my work.
After much consideration, I have chosen this:
Children are continually encouraged to be themselves. Avoid peer pressure. Be unique. But when they become adults, they are often punished for being different. Those who dare to be different despite this punishment are the ones we should admire most.
But you do not need to be a novelist nor a scientist to play this game. As a teacher, the most vital lesson drawn from my work would be this:
The most important thing that a teacher can do is make a student love school.
As a McDonald’s manager, the most vital lesson drawn from my work was:
Managing a crew of underpaid, highly unskilled workers depends solely on your ability to establish meaningful relationships with your employees. When your employees believe that you are invested in them, they will perform at a high level for you.
As a wedding DJ, my most vital lesson drawn from my work is this:
Music is the least important part of a DJ’s job at a wedding. Managing the wedding by ensuring that problems are handled quickly and appropriately and ensuring that all guests (including the bride and groom) are having fun is the DJ’s primary role.
Now I ask you:
What is the most vital lesson that can be drawn from your work?
If you go the extra mile, know your reasons for doing it before you do it. If you’re doing it because it’s right, and you seek no reward, the do the deed and be content.
If, however, your doing this extra thing expecting payment in return – whether it be money, recognition, or some other intangible benefit – make sure the appropriate parties are aware of what you do. If you don’t do this, they will not notice, and you’ll feel as though you’ve been treated unfairly, and you will become a wasted effort.
Other than people you’ve established personal relationships with, no one cares enough about you to take on the task of uncovering just how special you are; they’re busy trying to make their own way.
There be some angst in those words, me thinks!
I love this post, Matthew. Excellent job. I’ve never before seen something phrased quite this way. I’ll attempt mine:
In modern society it’s become unpopular—except in the horror genre—to address evil as anything except an absence of good. This is a lie. We are all capable of evil just as we’re capable of good. Key decisions during key moments of life do more than just define our personalities; they increase either good or evil in the world.
I can see you it would seem so, but there is no angst in those words.
They come from my wife’s late grandfather, who told them to me during the brief time I knew him. He was one of the few people at the time that treated an unsure, troubled 20 year old with respect.
They are harsh words, but they convey a harsh, yet true reality. As the years roll by, I’ve learned to appreciate the simple truth that they hold.
For people like me – people who avoid the limelight and generally don’t like attention, the lesson here is worth remembering, because without it we run the risk of mistakenly believing that our efforts are pointless.
These words helped me avoid a lot of angst, and I intend to share them with my son in a few years when he’s old enough to understand their meaning.
In terms of the Seed article, we must remember that Feynman’s original charge was to come up with the statement that encompasses the most knowledge that will benefit a future, naive civilization. I was disappointed by most of the scientists’ responses in this regard. Too many were focused solely on the biosphere, which is admittedly important, but are not borad enough to really be addressing Feynman’s question and are also a little too easy. I do like Tarter’s (and therefore Sagan’s quote). But realize that Feynman’s encompasses this statement, while also providing more information.
Of the quotes in Seed, my favorite was by the mathematician at Cornell. I think it was closest to addressing a broad truth.
Here are three things that I think would be worthwhile statements, one which falls squarely into the science category and the others which deal more with personal psychology:
1. It seems that one of the principle aspects that makes life possible and influences all levels of living things, from the molecular, to the cellular, to the organismal, is the ability to ratchet randomness in the environment to do useful work.
2. The greatest thing an individual can do is doubt; whether it be doubting the laws, religion, the existing knowledge base, or one’s own abilities or beliefs, we get ourselves much further by doubting one thing than by all the faith that we put in anything else.
3. A big toolbox of good tools is better than one exceptional tool. In terms of being consistently able to better ourselves, whether it be in work or personally, having a lot of different tricks is better than being able to do just one thing well.
My job is to stand up for people’s rights while I gauge their voracity. In my personal life this is more difficult.
Sometimes I’m trying to get to the root of my own crap and explain it to a friend. Sometimes I’m going through the night on the phone with a friend (my best friend) across the country who dates mean drunks and is looking for an hotel room.
Be charitable, trust your instincts, stand your ground for the long run in your community, … and be charitable.
And wish me luck at my 20 year high school reunion which is hopefully going to inspire my first murder novel.