Goodbye, Columbus
http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=17408
Columbus: But that’s ridiculous! Everybody knows that Portugal is immediately west of Spain. Of course you can get there by sailing west. What will you learn from that?
Isabella: Not much, if anything. But it can’t fail, now, can it? Besides, you’ve sailed to Portugal before, so the Study Section would know you can do it.
Ferdinand: Yes, your problem, you see, was in proposing to do something that no one has done before. People who hope to get funded don’t do that any more. You shouldn’t try to be daring and unique. Just follow what everyone else is doing.
Columbus: Then there would be no more big discoveries, no overturning false beliefs, no radical change. What sort of world would we have without them?
Isabella: A predictable one.
Columbus: But that’s ridiculous! Everybody knows that Portugal is immediately west of Spain. Of course you can get there by sailing west. What will you learn from that?
Isabella: Not much, if anything. But it can’t fail, now, can it? Besides, you’ve sailed to Portugal before, so the Study Section would know you can do it.
Ferdinand: Yes, your problem, you see, was in proposing to do something that no one has done before. People who hope to get funded don’t do that any more. You shouldn’t try to be daring and unique. Just follow what everyone else is doing.
Columbus: Then there would be no more big discoveries, no overturning false beliefs, no radical change. What sort of world would we have without them?
Isabella: A predictable one.