Even As Late As The Summer Of

He Was Ignorant, But A Lot Of People Mistook Ignorance For Stupidity, And Knowingness For Intelligence.

In Japan, Mothers Insist On Achievement And Accomplishment As A Sign Of Love And Respect. Thus To Fail Places Children In A Highly Shamed Situation.

People Really Don't Like To Hear Success Explained Away As Luck — Especially Successful People. As They Age, And Succeed, People Feel Their Success Was Somehow Inevitable. They Don't Want To Acknowledge The Role Played By Accident In Their Lives. There Is A Reason For This: The World Does Not Want To Acknowledge It Either. If You Use Better Data, You Can Find Better Values; There Are Always Market Inefficiencies To Exploit, And So On. But It Has A Broader And Less Practical Message: Don't Be Deceived By Life's Outcomes. Life's Outcomes, While Not Entirely Random, Have A Huge Amount Of Luck Baked Into Them. Above All, Recognize That If You Have Had Success, You Have Also Had Luck — And With Luck Comes Obligation.

Time And Space Are Absolute. Diseases Are Evil Spirits That Inhabit The Body. Parallel Lines Never Meet. The Earth Is The Center Of The Universe. Children Are Miniature Adults. At One Time In History Each Of These Beliefs Was Generally Held To Be True. Each, However, Gave Way To Different Ideas And Even Different World Views.

The Sheer Quantity Of Brain Power That Hurled Itself Voluntarily And Quixotically Into The Search For New Baseball Knowledge Was Either Exhilarating Or Depressing, Depending On How You Felt About Baseball. The Same Intellectual Resources Might Have Cured The Common Cold, Or Put A Man On Pluto.