In 1746, a group of British booksellers asked Dr. Samuel Johnson to write a definitive dictionary of the English language. Over the next eight years, he did just that—he wrote an entire dictionary. Using only his own brain.3 After he was done, a woman approached him, annoyed, and asked how he could have possibly defined a “pastern” as “the knee of a horse” when it is actually part of the foot. Johnson replied: “Ignorance, Madam. Pure ignorance!”
