Hybrid Vigor

I'm a geek. I'm more than a geek. I'm an actively practicing nerd. Sure, I'm a scientist by trade, but above and beyond that, I read books about science for fun. The mass market ones designed not just for the specialist, but for the intelligent layman.

I'm a physicist. So, understandably I read some things by the masters of my trade. I've read my Einstein, and Feynmann and Hawking and Dyson. All these people had fascinating minds, and thoughts. While I'm not in the same league as these folks academically, I'm cut of similar cloth. In their writing, I see a partial reflection of myself. Not only is that comforting, but it can be an exercise in self-awareness.

But, I find that if I read only those, I'm unsatisfied. Staying too close to home ends up feeling... self-referential, incestuous. Variety is the spice fo life, after all. So, I read my Penrose, and Gould...

And that's when we enter interesting territory. One can find great enlightenment when different men, from different generations, and different fields all talk about the same basic thing. Each, in their own way, delivers lessons on living a life, the theory and practice and business of science. But they don't sink in nearly as well alone.

Synthesis. E pluribus unum