Book Blurbs

“What we refer to as a great and special talent usually implies superiority that is expeditious rather than qualitative. In other words, it simply means doing quickly and with brilliant success what ordinary intellects carry out slowly but well. Instead of distinguishing between mediocre and great minds, it would be preferable and more correct in most instances to classify them as slow and facile. The latter are certainly more brilliant and stimulating–there is no substitute for them in conversation, oratory, and journalism, that is in all lines of work where time is a decisive factor. However, in scientific undertakings the slow prove to be as useful as the fast because scientists like artists are judged by the quality of what they produce, not by the speed of production. I would even venture to add that as a very common compensation slow brains have great endurance for prolonged concentration. They open wide, deep furrows in problems, whereas facile brains often tire quickly after scarcely clearing the land. There are, however, many exceptions to this generalization: Newton, Davy, Pasteur, Virchow, and others who were active minds who left a broad, luminoous wake.” (p. 24)

“Some time after his visit to the General Electric Laboratory, Edison, old free lance that he was, shook his head and declared that the ‘corporation laboratory’ would not do. The inventor was now a ‘hired person’ for the corporation, assigning to it all his patents; such men now worked in large groups and held many conferences. The ‘weight of organization’ was too great, Edison observed shrewdly; and the results, he predicted would not be as rich as in the case of individual inventors working in small organizations. In truth, inventive and development work at the great corporate laboratories of the United States between 1900 and 1940 has been judged unremarkable by scientists themselves. However, the richest results seem to have been reached where some leading personality, both inspired and tenacious, directed a small group toward the objective.” (p. 467)

“When an associate came to him one day and in forthright language declared that a long series of tests had proved negative and that whole venture was a waste of labor and money, Edison rounded on him and cried angrily, ‘Is that all you have to say for yourself?’ and then walked out of the room. To another who also assured him that a certain series of experiments gave progressively worse results, and that they simply posed ‘a problem without a solution,’ he replied with spirit, ‘I’ve been in the inventor business for thirty-three years, and my experience is that for every problem the Lord has made He has also made a solution. If you and I can’t find a solution, then let’s honestly admit that you and I are damn fools, but why blame it on the Lord and say He created something ‘impossible.”” (p. 418)