Advice for a Young Investigator
by Ramony Cajal, Santiago (1906 Nobel Prize Winner)
Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1999.
Chapter 5, Diseases of the Will (科学人物—失败的性格)
Contemplators. Bibliophiles and polyglots. Megalomaniacs. Instrument addicts. Misfits. Theorists
半瓶子醋的业余家，又称做空想家；博学多闻的人，或者是爱书狂；自大狂；仪器的崇拜狂；不适合的人；理论专家，理论的建构者
We have all seen teachers who are wonderfully talented and full of energy and initiative—with ample facilities at their disposal—who never produce any original work and almost never write anything. Their students and admirers wait anxiously for the masterpiece worthy of the lofty opinion they have formed of the teacher. But the great work is never written, and the teacher remains silent.
Let us not be deceived by optimism and good intentions. Despite their exceptional merit, and the zeal and energy they display in the classroom, such teachers suffer from a disease of the will—although psychologists may not see it this way. Their sluggishness and neglect may not justify a diagnosis of abulia or loss of will power, but their students and friends may nevertheless consider them abnormal and suggest some adequate form of spiritual therapy, with all due respect to their fine intellectual abilities.
These illustrious failures may be classified in the following way: the dilettantes or contemplators; the erudite or bibliophiles; the instrument addicts; the megalomaniacs; the misfits; and the theory builders.
by Ramony Cajal, Santiago (1906 Nobel Prize Winner)
Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1999.
Chapter 5, Diseases of the Will (科学人物—失败的性格)
Contemplators. Bibliophiles and polyglots. Megalomaniacs. Instrument addicts. Misfits. Theorists
半瓶子醋的业余家，又称做空想家；博学多闻的人，或者是爱书狂；自大狂；仪器的崇拜狂；不适合的人；理论专家，理论的建构者
We have all seen teachers who are wonderfully talented and full of energy and initiative—with ample facilities at their disposal—who never produce any original work and almost never write anything. Their students and admirers wait anxiously for the masterpiece worthy of the lofty opinion they have formed of the teacher. But the great work is never written, and the teacher remains silent.
Let us not be deceived by optimism and good intentions. Despite their exceptional merit, and the zeal and energy they display in the classroom, such teachers suffer from a disease of the will—although psychologists may not see it this way. Their sluggishness and neglect may not justify a diagnosis of abulia or loss of will power, but their students and friends may nevertheless consider them abnormal and suggest some adequate form of spiritual therapy, with all due respect to their fine intellectual abilities.
These illustrious failures may be classified in the following way: the dilettantes or contemplators; the erudite or bibliophiles; the instrument addicts; the megalomaniacs; the misfits; and the theory builders.
