
“… you need more than luck to navigate successfully through a thousand sieves in succession.”
River out of Eden (1995)
Succeeding in Science: Some Rules of Thumb (1993)
Context: To have success in science, you need some luck.
But to succeed in science, you need a lot more than luck. And it's not enough to be smart — lots of people are very bright and get nowhere in life. In my view, you have to combine intelligence with a willingness not to follow conventions when they block your path forward.
“… you need more than luck to navigate successfully through a thousand sieves in succession.”
River out of Eden (1995)
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)
Source: Straight From The Heart (1985), Chapter Four, The Politics Of Business, p. 91
Context: I learned early that business is business and politics is politics. The proof is how few important businessmen have made good politicians. They may think that they are very smart about everything because they made millions of dollars by digging a hole in the ground and finding oil, but the talent and luck needed to become rich are not the same talent and luck needed to succeed on Parliament Hill.
As quoted in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 146, no. 1, (March 2002), p. 115
Context: If you sense a deep human need, then you go back to all the basic science. If there is some missing, then you try to do more basic science and applied science until you get it. So you make the system to fulfill that need, rather than starting the other way around, where you have something and wonder what to do with it.
“You have the magical combo of luck and sheer pigheadedness it takes to succeed in business.”
Source: Windswept (2015), Chapter 13 (p. 159)
1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
“I wish you way more than luck.”
Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life