“If you want to do good research, it's important not to know too much. This almost sounds contradictory but really if you know too much and you get an idea, you will sort of talk yourself out of trying it because you figure it won't work. But if you know just the right amount and you get enthusiastic about your project, you go ahead, you do it and if you're lucky things'll work out.”

— Ivar Giaever

In Ivar Giaever's Nobel Prize http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=82E4B92E3A753DDF. Interview produced by Alfred Leitner in 1982.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 21, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you want to do good research, it's important not to know too much. This almost sounds contradictory but really if yo…" by Ivar Giaever?

Ivar Giaever 5

Norwegian physicist 1929

Related quotes

“We find that in research a certain amount of intelligent ignorance is essential to progress; for, if you know too much, you won't try the thing.”

Charles Kettering (1876–1958) American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 140 patents

quoted in Professional Amateur: The Biography Of Charles Franklin Kettering, Thomas Alvin Boyd, 1957 page 106 ( Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/professionalamat013190mbp)

“Don't try to go too fast. Learn your job. Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about... If you want to get along, go along.”

Sam Rayburn (1882–1961) lawmaker from Bonham, Texas

Reported in Neil MacNeil, Forge of Democracy, the House of Representatives (1963), p. 129.

“People will only follow you if they see you're ahead, are convinced you know the route, trust you, and want to get there too.”

Patrick Dixon book Building a Better Business

Building a Better Business (2005)

“I have never yet figured out what to do about good advice that you get, and that you know right away would help you, but that you cannot follow.”

Holly Lisle (1960) American writer

Source: The Silver Door

“Tell yourself every morning as you go to work that you love your job. Think of it as interesting, even fascinating. By so doing you will ultimately get enthusiastic about your work — and you will undoubtedly do a better job.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Power Of The Plus Factor (1987)

“Getting what you want is just as difficult as not getting what you want. Because then you have to figure out what to do with it instead of figuring out what to do without it.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“Keep walking. Hot night right now, right here. All you have is what you are. All you want is much too much. All you get is so much less. All you feel is nothing. All you see is darkness. All you know is senseless and all you can do about it is ride.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Eye Scream

“I think you just have to space out selfies with not too many professional photos. Followers want to see you and get to know you. Posting consistently is important, and with captions I try to talk about what I’m doing. I use quotes, but only if they aren’t cliché. I do less group pictures, because followers want to see what you’re doing and not what other people are doing. So not too many group photos. You have to cater to your audience, remember why they followed you.”

Antje Utgaard (1994) American actress

Antje Utgaard Spills The Top Mistakes You're Making On Instagram https://galoremag.com/antje-utgaard-spills-the-top-mistakes-youre-making-on-instagram/ (November 3, 2016)

“The only way to get somewhere, you know, is to figure out where you're going before you go there.”

John Updike book Rabbit, Run

Rabbit, Run (1960)

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me... is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Ira Glass (1959) American radio personality

The Taste Gap: Ira Glass on the Secret of Creative Success, Animated in Living Typography http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/ira-glass-success-daniel-sax/ at brainpickings.org
This American Life

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Ivar Giaever 5

Related quotes

Related topics