Thursday 21 August 2014

Archaeology and the psyche: part four ― the road well travelled

Wheel ruts
photo: Bob Jones (Geograph)


“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain







Neural signaling

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." Bertrand Russell





If Benjamin Button had been an academic he would have started with a Ph.d, and then got his Master's degree so that he could teach the things he had discovered to others. Finally, he would have amused himself in his young age by reading mountains of books and papers written by people who tried to do it the other way round. None of them would have been very original, and perhaps not even right, but at least they would have had lots of company.

Good original research is a solitary activity. The only voice you will hear will be that of the primary material. It's a quiet voice, and too easily drowned out when everyone is talking at once.

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