JR8 wrote:Maybe the 'youth of today' do aspire to be the next Jobs, Gates, Buffet or Branson. But sadly I suspect such people are all doomed to fail. I don't think it is a thing you plan to be. Rather I think it is a thing for which you have a required natural aptitude (of which 99.999% don't), and of the ones that do I wonder how many realise it before the moment 'Preparation meets opportunity', and it starts to happen. When Branson was selling records and fanzines over the payphone from school, I can't imagine he had any inkling or dream of owning an airline. It was probably an innate ability and chance, rather than something more planned that got him there...
Yes there's a large element of chance and serendipity. It's amazing how such big life decisions, i.e. career path, are made without much careful thought or just via drift / the path of least resistance. That's why kids are likely to "choose" (perhaps unintentionally) to study/work in fields based on the role models and key social influences of today, rather than a logical assessment of their passion, strengths, etc. And nowadays more than ever before it boils down to money and/or fame, of which Science seems to struggle on both counts compared to most other competing vocations. Maybe if Einstein was born in this era, he would have become a computer hacker (ala Assange) or earn the big bucks as a smart phone app designer
JR8 wrote:--- Interesting thought. The modern cult of celebrity. And the moulding of historical 'dry as a stick' scientists into cultural celebrities...
Forget all his breakthrough theories, purely based on hairdo alone, how could Einstein not be a cult celebrity ?
