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The people who fail in life are those whose ambitions were insufficient to overcome all the forces that work against them. And yes, failure is common to us all. But ambitious people use their failures as lessons to heed, as they push forward toward their goals. Don’t fear change. Don’t fear failure. The only thing to fear is loss of ambition.
IQ correlates nicely with GPA in high school and college, but after your first job, nobody ever asks what your college GPA was. What matters are your people skills, leadership skills, real-world problem solving skills, integrity, business acumen, reliability, ambition, work ethic, kindness, compassion, etc. So for me, conversations about race and IQ are of no practical consequence, any more than are conversations about race and hair color, or race and food preferences.
In my experience, when money is the sole carrot, people can lose sight of life’s deeper sources of happiness.
One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.
Note further that claims of a “cover-up” or “conspiracy” is the battle cry of people who want to believe, in the face of insufficient data to fully support their claims.
When I wonder what I am capable of as a human being, I don’t look to “relatives,” I look to all human beings. That is the genetic relationship that matters to me.
What a fascinating experiment it would be if we all paid taxes by checking boxes on a form (which is basically what Congress does for every year’s budget cycle, but they do it with the populace in mind, not the individual). And suppose it was not a democracy, where majority rules, and you leave the box for NASA unchecked. What happens next? Do anti-tax compatriots come to your home and remove everything from it that was informed, inspired, influenced, invented, or enabled by the space program? That would make an interesting reality show: •Gone are the integrated circuits of the electronics you
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The theory of evolution is not something to “believe in.” Science follows evidence. And when strong evidence supports an idea, the concept of belief, when invoked the way religious people use the word, is unnecessary. In other words, established science is not an ensemble of beliefs, it’s a system of ideas supported by verifiable evidence.
science seeks all three (truth, understanding, meaning), but primarily concerns itself with obtaining sufficient knowledge of how the universe works to be able to make testable predictions about its past and future behavior.
Why is August hotter than June, when the Sun’s rays on Earth are more direct in June?
On my deathbed, one thought I will surely have comes from the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He notes that we who die are the lucky ones. Most people—most genetic combinations of who could ever exist—will never be born, and so will never have the opportunity to die.
“When an argument last longer than five minutes then both sides are wrong.”
Your writing is potent, but you never want to win an argument for being a better writer, or because you have a bigger vocabulary than your opponent. In this way, the strength of the argument rests on the strength of the argument rather than the strength of your literacy.
In spite of how science is taught in grade-school, or in spite of what the public thinks, science is not so much about getting the right answer as it is about getting the right idea.
As the saying goes, we spend the first years of children’s lives teaching them to talk and walk, and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down.
You asked what I teach my children. My answer is—I do not worry about what they know as much as I worry about how they think. This just might be the highest of all pedagogical goals, because the most important moments in life occur at times when how we think will matter more than what we know.
Dear Cathy, I take the unorthodox view that the concept of a role model is highly overrated. Or rather, role models should be assembled à la carte. I have found skin-color associations, in these modern times, do more harm than good in the maturing child. To pick one person for a role model and not another, for reasons driven by skin color, may preclude entire worlds of ambition from being realized by your kids. If you come to visit, it should not be because I am labeled as Black. But because I am a scientist/educator, and you care for the science literacy of your children. Sincerely, Neil
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Being on the spectrum and liking science as he does, your best bet might be to not enforce the literalism of anything religious, but to keep him plugged into the beautiful traditions of the religion, and emphasize the value of ritual as a seed and taproot of community. Often that alone represents the greatest challenge when raising autistic children—getting them to embrace the value of love and compassion for people and for relationships.
First Telescope Saturday, July 18, 2009 Dear Professor Tyson I thought I’d pass this along to you, and that you’d appreciate this story more than most people. If not, apologies. I realized I was over-telescoped and decided to get rid of my 2003 60mm Meade brand refracting telescope. The town of Tombstone, Arizona, is small, and trying to sell it would probably cost more in advertising than anyone would be willing to offer. So, I put up a note in the post office, “Free to any kid 10–17 with parent.” Even with “free,” it took five days before I got a call. This guy called and later came over
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