What was impossible

All I had to do was believe that is, believe in the data point of myself , and people would revise models accordingly. Impossible Thing 2. What was another seemingly impossible thing that I believed on that particular morning?

Scientists could write books, and they do write books. I just had to reveal that, as the rather obvious fact that it was. The first step is to have a conversation about it. A conversation to which I do not come unprepared—schooled as I am in the discipline and practice of believing that impossible things can and do happen. The conversation that I had with that scientist that morning was just one of hundreds perhaps even thousands at this point that I have had since I first began my adventures in scientific publishing about twenty years ago.

This conversation varies from person to person, of course, but typically has a certain trajectory. I first talk about what I do—that is, I look for new opportunities to publish interesting and useful new books, from trade science books to textbooks to monographs to major reference works. I then ask what books the person would love to see written and ideally by whom. I think of this as populating the ideal bookshelf. And lastly, I ask whether the person would ever consider writing a book themselves—and about what and for whom.

I also come with a few ideas of my own in my back pocket that the person might want to think about for themselves, if they feel a bit stumped or a little reticent.

Impossible Thing 3. They know that science succeeds via a collective effort to look at the world honestly and critically from as many different angles as possible. This means that the inclusion of a diversity of voices and perspectives can only improve the enterprise and practice of science. Naomi Oreskes discusses this point and much more in her book, Why Trust Science? I found that scientists who were open to having a conversation with me did, by and large, believe that writing books has value.

If they believed that, they were usually willing to lend me their suggestions of the books they wished would be published. And, if they could imagine books that they wished someone else would write in their discipline, it was not too much of a stretch for them to entertain the idea of writing a book someday themselves. This is the third impossible thing on the list—and one that is quite a marvelous one. Impossible Thing 4. Some people have more trouble than others believing that they can write a book.

And, the reality is: belief is crucial, but regrettably, it does not guarantee success. Not everyone will succeed. Sometimes the idea is flawed. Sometimes the execution is flawed.

Sometimes the idea and execution are good, but someone else scooped you. Sometimes you learn something while researching and writing that makes you doubt your original plan for the book. Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory, joined the chorus of scepticism in after a fixed wing aeroplane had proved successful. Televisions are so ubiquitous these days that you can find them in cars and on the doors of fridges.

But less than a century ago, they had yet to be introduced to the world. Electronic television was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco in September , unveiled by its year-old inventor Philo Farnsworth. The young man had devised a system capable of capturing moving images in a form that could be coded onto radio waves and then transformed back into a picture on a screen. We live in a computerised world but the idea of a personal home computer was once a far-fetched notion.

However the personal computer went on to find its first true commercial success when Apple introduced the Apple II. A new bus fleet will hit Sydney streets next month, but the vehicles will be very different from what Australians are used to.

At-home testing for Covid will be available from November 1, but it may not be available in some states. When Larry Page awoke from his dream, he had no intention of creating a search engine. Google began as just an idea that interested him.

Important innovations arise from collaboration. The reason is that true breakthroughs come from synthesizing information across domains. If a problem is difficult enough, it needs to borrow from multiple fields of expertise. Innovation, mto a large degree, is combination. Even Einstein, although a theorist, was resolving a crisis that was widely discussed in the physics world at the time. Although many might have seen these problems as esoteric and abstract, they were exciting problems within their respective communities.

Leaders, in the final analysis, are those who attract followers. The impossible becomes possible not just through a flash of inspiration, but from the discovery of new truths and inspiring others to see their potential. We need to master the art of the shift. This is a BETA experience.

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