"Every night there is a band playing in a bar, and is the world greatest band ever". This quote is (I guess) from Keith Richards, British guitarist of The Rolling Stones, and can be expanded to many other fields. Then, you can imagine that right now somebody is doing / creating / composing / playing / discovering something awesome. Something that will change your perception of life, or will cure a disease that you (or any of your friends or relatives) are (or will be) suffering, or expand your view in arts, or will be used/needed for the coming future. All these possibilities are just growing now, right now. As usual, I prefer to pick some examples from different fields.
For example, the biography about Michael Faraday is amazing. The young Michael, having the most basic school education, had to educate himself. In the meanwhile, working as a bookbinder and bookseller, he got the time to read important books about science, specially about electricity. His knowledge about maths was poor, he didn't know about calculus, but he had a remarkable ability to design experiments. In 1821, after the discover of electromagnetism by Hans Christian Ørsted, and exploring the magnetic properties, Michael had to apply effort, patient, enthusiasm, imagination to develop the famous "electromagnetic rotation experiment", where a circular motion was generated by a circular magnetic force around a wire. There is a good book including these personal and important episodes from Michael, written by Peter Day: "The Philosopher's Tree: Michael Faraday's life and work in his own words".
I'd like to mention the case of Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Indian mathematician with no access to education, that developed his own mathematical research, and made contributions to different fields: continued fractions, infinite series, number theory. His work was recognized by G.H.Hardy. Hardy invited him to work for some years at Cambridge, developing marvelous identities and theorems. For an specific reading, please check the book written by Robert Kanigel: "The man who knew infinity: A life of the genius Ramanujan".
Another example comes from Clara Lazen. Few years ago, Clara (a 10 years old girl from Kansas City), discovered the tetranitratoxycarbon when she was handing out the usual ball-and-stick models used to visualize simple molecules. Results were published in the journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, where Clara is, of course, co-author! More general and technical info can be read in:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/10-year-old-accidentally-creates-new-explosive-molecule-science-class
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210271X11005433
Recently you may know about a fantastic story of Sixto Rodriguez, an American folk musician, with two little-sod album. Unknown to him, his music had a great success in South Africa during many years. This incredible story can be seen in the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man". Taking again the quote from Keith Richards, please don't miss the recent film directed by the Coen brothers:"Inside Llewyn Davis", which is about the struggling life of a folk singer.
Many great ideas appear during unexpected moments, even in a crisis period. I also believe that the brain (the unconscious mind) is working when you are sleeping. Then, you may remember those moments when you wake up an already visualize the solution to that problem you were thinking last night. Anyway, the solution is there, waiting to be discovered, with no hurries, but it will not come to you with no reason! As Pablo Picasso said: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working".
See you around!
Jesus
For example, the biography about Michael Faraday is amazing. The young Michael, having the most basic school education, had to educate himself. In the meanwhile, working as a bookbinder and bookseller, he got the time to read important books about science, specially about electricity. His knowledge about maths was poor, he didn't know about calculus, but he had a remarkable ability to design experiments. In 1821, after the discover of electromagnetism by Hans Christian Ørsted, and exploring the magnetic properties, Michael had to apply effort, patient, enthusiasm, imagination to develop the famous "electromagnetic rotation experiment", where a circular motion was generated by a circular magnetic force around a wire. There is a good book including these personal and important episodes from Michael, written by Peter Day: "The Philosopher's Tree: Michael Faraday's life and work in his own words".
I'd like to mention the case of Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Indian mathematician with no access to education, that developed his own mathematical research, and made contributions to different fields: continued fractions, infinite series, number theory. His work was recognized by G.H.Hardy. Hardy invited him to work for some years at Cambridge, developing marvelous identities and theorems. For an specific reading, please check the book written by Robert Kanigel: "The man who knew infinity: A life of the genius Ramanujan".
Another example comes from Clara Lazen. Few years ago, Clara (a 10 years old girl from Kansas City), discovered the tetranitratoxycarbon when she was handing out the usual ball-and-stick models used to visualize simple molecules. Results were published in the journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, where Clara is, of course, co-author! More general and technical info can be read in:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/10-year-old-accidentally-creates-new-explosive-molecule-science-class
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210271X11005433
Recently you may know about a fantastic story of Sixto Rodriguez, an American folk musician, with two little-sod album. Unknown to him, his music had a great success in South Africa during many years. This incredible story can be seen in the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man". Taking again the quote from Keith Richards, please don't miss the recent film directed by the Coen brothers:"Inside Llewyn Davis", which is about the struggling life of a folk singer.
Many great ideas appear during unexpected moments, even in a crisis period. I also believe that the brain (the unconscious mind) is working when you are sleeping. Then, you may remember those moments when you wake up an already visualize the solution to that problem you were thinking last night. Anyway, the solution is there, waiting to be discovered, with no hurries, but it will not come to you with no reason! As Pablo Picasso said: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working".
See you around!
Jesus