• Half life of technical knowledge is about 15 years. It means in 15 years half of your knowledge will be obsolete.
  • So try to learn things which you think are fundamental and develop the skill to learn new fields as they arise. 
  • When forming plan for future, ask 3 questions :
    • What is possible? (science) 
    • What is likely to happen? (engineering) 
    • What is desirable to happen? (ethics, morals) 
  • The growth of most fields follows a S-curve. The growth will be slow, and then there will be rapid innovation and it will flatten after a time. 
  • At the flattening end, the second innovation will start its S-curve and hopefully this cycle will continue. 
  • The more rapidly the technology grows, more rapidly it becomes obsolete. 
  • You must assume the responsibility for what you believe. 
  • Rethink everything you have learned on the subject, question every successful doctrine from the past, and finally decide for yourself its future applicability. 
  • Thinking may be the way something is done rather than what is done. 
  • Thinking may be a matter of degree and not a yes/no question. 
  • Almost everyone who opens up a new field does not really understand in the way followers do. 
  • The duty of scientist is not only to find new things, but to communicate them successfully in at least three forms:
    • Writing papers and books
    • Prepared public talks 
    • Impromptu talks
  • It is first necessary to prove beyond doubt any new thing before it can get into the system. So don’t get discouraged when your idea is stoutly, and perhaps foolishly, resisted. 
  • As you go on in your careers you should examine the applications which succeed and those fail; try to learn how to distinguish between them; try to understand the situation which produce successes and those which almost guarantees failure. 
  • It is not the same job you do with machines, but rather an equivalent job and in a way so that future, flexible, expansion can be easily added. 
  • Working calmly will let you elaborate and extend things, but the breakthroughs generally come only after great frustration and emotional involvement. 
  • It pays to know more than just what is needed at the moment. 
  • Know the fundamental very well; the fancy parts then follow easily and you can do things that they never told you about. 
  • What you learn from others you can use to follow ; What you learn for yourself you can use to lead. 
  • This is a common, endlessly made, mistake; people always want to think that something new is just like the past - they like to be comfortable in their minds as well as their bodies - and hence they prevent themselves from making any significant contribution to the new field being created under their noses. 
  • When something is claimed to be new, do not be too hasty to think it is just the past slightly improved - it may be a great opportunity for you to do significant things. But again it may be nothing new. 
  • Cooperation is essential in these days of complex projects. Hence learning to work in a team, indeed possibly seeking out places where you can help others, is a good idea. 
  • When you know something can’t be done, also remember the essential reason why, so later, when the circumstances have changed, you will not say, “It can’t be done”. 
  • If you will only ask yourself, “Is what I am being told really true?” it is amazing how much you can find is, or borders on, being false, even in a well developed field. 
  • Too often we see what we want to see, and therefore you need to consciously adopt a scientific attitude of doubting your own beliefs. 
  • Try to keep reasonably abreast by actively anticipating the way things and ideas might go, and then seeing what actually happens. 
  • Your anticipation means you are far, far better prepared to absorb the new things when they arise than if you sit passively by and merely follow progress. 
  • A solution which does not provide greater insight than you had when you began is a poor solution indeed.
  • Accuracy in measurement tends to get confused with relevance of measurement. A measurement is accurate, and easy to make does not mean it should be done, instead a much poorer one which is more closely related to your goals may be much preferable.

Case study : Quantum mechanics

(how to do things which have intellectual repercussions)

  • To present the new ideas in a field, it has to be represented in terms of functions and notations that fit the belief system of the field
  • There need not be a unique form of a theory to account for a body of observations, instead two rather different looking theories can agree on all the predicted details. 
  • The above point also implies that you cannot get a unique theory from a set of data. 
  • It takes time for new ideas to become intuitive. 
  • Given the wiring of our brain there are things we can’t see, smell or hear. Similarly there will be thoughts our brain can’t think. 
  • While developing quantum mechanics theory, physicist didn’t really “know” what they were doing. When they found an effect in the symbols they could interpret in the real world they would then claim a step forward. 
  • We tend to believe what we want to believe rather than the results of careful thinking. 
  • Mathematics of past was designed to fit the obvious situations. As we explore new areas we can expect to need new kind of Mathematics. 
  • Future should be full of interesting opportunities for those who have the intellectual courage to think hard and use Mathematical model as a basis for “understanding” nature.

Pattern of creativity 

  1. Recognition of problem in some dim sense. This is followed by a longer or shorter period of refinement of the problem. 
  2. A long gestation period of intense thinking about the problem may result in a solution, or else the temporary abandonment of the problem. 
  3. Them comes the moment of “insight” or creativity - you see the solution. 
  4. It often happens you are wrong. A false starts and false solutions often sharpens the next approach you try.

How to manage our subconscious to think the solution?

Saturate the subconscious with the problem, try not to think seriously about anything else for hours, days, or even weeks, and thus the subconscious which, so far as we know, depends heavily upon live experiences to form its dreams, etc. is then left with only the problem to mull over. You prepare your mind for success “by thinking on it constantly” and occasionally you are lucky.

Experts

  • Experts are both necessary, and also at times do great harm in blocking significant progress, they need to be closely examined.
  • Change in the paradigm of a field is resisted for a shorter or longer time before being accepted as being right, and those concerned then saying they had not actively opposed the change.
  • All impossibility proofs must rest on a number of assumptions which may or may not apply in the particular situation.
  • When one or more of these assumptions are not true then the impossibility proof fails - but the expert seldom remembers it.
  • If a expert says something can be done he is probably correct, but if he says it is impossible then consider getting another opinion.
  • Really new ideas seldom arise from the experts in the field.
  • Ask yourself regularly, “Why do I believe whatever I do”, Especially in the areas where you are so sure you know; the area of the paradigms of your field.
  • What you did to become successful is likely to be counterproductive when applied at a later date.
  • The old expert is all too often wrong and a block to progress.

You and Your Research

  • It is hard work, applied for long years, which leads to a creative act, and it is rarely just handed to you without any serious efforts on your part.
  • If you do not work on important problems then it is obvious you have little chance of doing important things.
  • Ability comes in many forms, and on the surface the variety is great; below the surface there are many common elements.
  • Common elements to do great work :
    • Belief you can do important things
    • Confidence in yourself
    • Desire of excellence
    • Sometimes age is a factor
    • Drive to do things
    • Great people can tolerate ambiguity. They can believe in an idea knowing it shortcoming at the same time.
  • You should work on small things which seems to you to have the possibility of future growth.
  • When stuck often inverting the problem, and realizing the new formulation is better, represents a significant step forward.
  • The interaction with harsh reality tends to push you into significant discoveries which otherwise you would never have thought about doing pure research in a vacuum of your private interests.
  • Like compound interest, the steady application of bit more effort has a great total accumulation.
  • You need to work on the right problem at the right time and in the right way.
  • You should do job in such a fashion others can build on top of it. Don’t make yourselves indispensable.