Monday, April 06, 2020
Productive Stupidity
Martin A. Schwartz, "The importance of stupidity in scientific research," Journal of Cell Science 121 (2008) 1771:
Newer› ‹Older
Science makes me feel stupid too. It's just that I've gotten used to it. So used to it, in fact, that I actively seek out new opportunities to feel stupid. I wouldn't know what to do without that feeling. I even think it's supposed to be this way.Related posts:
[....]
The crucial lesson was that the scope of things I didn't know wasn't merely vast; it was, for all practical purposes, infinite. That realization, instead of being discouraging, was liberating. If our ignorance is infinite, the only possible course of action is to muddle through as best we can.
[....]
Science involves confronting our 'absolute stupidity'. That kind of stupidity is an existential fact, inherent in our efforts to push our way into the unknown.
[....]
Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Focusing on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being ignorant. One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time.
[....]
The more comfortable we become with being stupid, the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely we are to make big discoveries.
