He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.
Interpretation
Being open to the world may lead to distractions, but it also offers valuable insights.
This quote suggests that while keeping one's door open can lead to frequent interruptions, it also allows for the reception of important information and insights about the world. Embracing openness may sometimes hinder focus, but it also nurtures awareness and understanding of what truly matters in life and work.
In practice
During a team meeting, to emphasize the value of openness to feedback and new ideas.
When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.
Science is composed of laws which were originally based on a small, carefully selected set of observations, often not very accurately measured originally; but the laws have later been found to apply over much wider ranges of observations and much more accurately than the original data justified.
Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane.
If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.
Beware of finding what you're looking for._x000D_ _x000D_ A favorite aphorism he often used.
One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can. If you think you can't, almost surely you are not going to.
For years, kids have been asking me what's the greatest superpower. I always say luck. If you're lucky, everything works. I've been lucky.
Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.
I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart.
People in both fields operate with beliefs and biases. To the extent you can eliminate both and replace them with data, you gain a clear advantage.
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
If you hear how wonderful you are often enough, you begin to believe it, no matter how you try to resist it.
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