Do not avoid going into a science just because you're impatient and you know it.

 

— 〈  1  〉—

``Patience is essential to science'', said the nonscientist.

And the scientists all nodded.

``Indeed, few people are so patient as scientists, as researchers, '', continued the nonscientist.

And the scientists all nodded.

Why not? You do not always get the praise you deserve when you deserve it.

Better the accept praise you get when you get it. Especially undeserved praise.

Indeed one thing which is better than deserved praise is ... undeserved praise.

Not in spite of the fact but precisely because you did not deserve it.

Much like a gift is better than paying for the same good.

I mean: you didn't even expect it.

We scientists are wise to accept undeserved praise. Take the gift.

Because often enough, all the same, you will not receive the good, the praise, when you did earn it — and when it is deserved.

So when they heard that bit of nonsense, that undeserved praise, they nodded without the slightest hesitation. They are not fools.

 

— 〈  2  〉—

Consider this statement: scientists are very patient.

No. They're not.

Or not really.

It just appears that way.

What you observe, comrade nonscientist, is not so much patience as a flurry of activity.

This activity occurs in many directions. And this activity is sustained for years and years. Because we are not patient. We are scientists. We do not wait.

And that with a very delayed reward. A big reward. Just one that's very far off.

Most researchers actually switch between interests very quickly, applying their budgeted resources to what seems most promising. To what seems most promising at that moment. Well: that changes rapidly over time.

No, they're not really very patient.

They won't deny they are patient, if you say they are. But that is because they are smart. Only a fool would refuse a gift, when the earned reward and the paid for good is so often not received. They are wise to accept every unearned gift they are given; why not? Life is difficult. Is it not?

But suppose we want the truth. The truth is this: each activity progresses rather quickly. — But there are many activities. Movement in each direction appears to be slow and plodding.

And some people look and say: movement in general appears to be slow and plodding. (It's not.) ``The participants in the game have enormous patience to stand it.'' (They don't.)

Nobody is sitting around waiting and hoping. And there are enormous strides and results gained very rapidly. Just not in any one obvious direction.

A rock with its bits moving rapidly in many directions at once merely gets warm: it does not move.

Reality as usual is not what it seems.

The same with research; the same with science.

Because there is much we don't know. And knowing we are blind, we reach out in many directions, so much the more likely we are to actually therefore grasp in the dark room something important.

 

— 〈  3  〉—

So it's a misunderstanding to think that science involves any real amount of patience.

No; the patient get nothing much done. They're not active enough; they move far too slowly for their own good.

Our patient, plodding gentlemen leave no great body of work. They were too patient for that.

A person does not produce a hundred thousand pages ... no .... two hundred thousand pages ... no ... three hundred thousands pages ... volumes of collected works published while they're still living ... by some fabulous and basically mythological patience.

Patience in science is a myth. A part of a mythology not created by scientists but accepted by most scientists.

Rather they're cavalier. Far more than the mode person.

They make predictions. Most of which are false. But that doesn't faze them; and that is how it should be.

Einstein Desitter universe. Right. Which one ... that is what I ask. For there were three different conjectures by these well known joint authors. The authors were not afraid to make three different conjectures. At best two would be wrong. Probably all three would be wrong. And relegated to toy models and teaching examples. The stuff libraries eventually throw away and which is lost.

You don't want to be patient; you are a scientist. Are you not?

No, you want to be very impatient ... very, very impatient ... and active ... and explore many possible avenues. Most conjectures will be ... shock ... wrong. But the 5% that are correct make up for all that: for the 95% which are wrong.

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