TITLE: "So Little of the Great to Conceal"
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: April 25, 2016  1:26 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
In
<A HREF="http://clivethompson.net/2016/04/14/genius-hesitates/">
   a recent post</A>,
Clive Thompson quotes a short passage from Carlo Rovelli's
<EM>Seven Brief Lessons on Physics</EM> in which Rovelli
notes that <B>genius hesitates</B> when it comes upon great
ideas.  Einstein introduced quantum theory with "It seems
to me...", and Darwin demurred even in his own notebooks on
natural selection with "I think...".  Thompson writes:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 It's not a bad litmus test for the people around us in
 everyday life.  The ones who are proposing genuinely
 startling and creative ideas are liable to be ...
 careful about it.  It's the ones with small ideas who
 are shouting them from the rooftops.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

These thought brought to mind a wonderful passage from
Okakura Kakuzo's
<A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Tea">
   The Book of Tea</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in small things
 because we have so little of the great to conceal.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Those who encounter a great idea are most willing to let their
uncertainty show.  Those who express no uncertainty often have
no greatness to conceal.

Earlier in the book, Okakura writes another line that I see
quoted often:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in
 themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little
 things in others.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This passage takes on a different flavor for me when considered
in the light of Rovelli's observation.
-----