Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Patience is a virtue

I watched a NOVA program last night ...according to the broadcast, when Albert Einstein published his theories of Special Relativity (including the famous E=mc^2) linking energy and mass... he did not hear virtually any replies for a whole year. Max Planck, one of the most lauded Physicists of his time and all time, read and appreciated Einstein's work, and persuaded his colleagues to take his work seriously on its merits. For 4 years after that Einstein wrote letters, amid his study of the physical world, answering questions and explaining his theories to his colleagues in the world of physics.

The point is, nothing is built in a day, including some of the greatest physical theories in the past 150 years, and some would say in the history of physics. Einstein's theories obviously took ingenuity, creativity, and years of study and hard work to gain and understanding and then formulate. His work did not end with the well-formed theory, as it took persistence and confidence to see it through to the point where it was understood and appreciated by others.

I thought this was a great lesson related to a pursuit of any type or scale, and wanted to pass it on.





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