• Question: how sure are you that your ideas will suceed

    Asked by 11chitt1 to Simone on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Simone Sturniolo

      Simone Sturniolo answered on 21 Jun 2013:


      Depends on the ideas. I used to be too enthusiastic when having a new idea and being too sure about it – which made it much more disappointing when I found out that I was wrong! A healthy dose of doubt is always needed in science: we all make mistakes and we often don’t spot them immediately, so checking multiple times all that we do is a duty. We must be our own worst critics: after working up a theory, the first thing we must do is try to prove it wrong in all possible ways. If it resists this relentless assault, then maybe it’s right! I think I have learned this lesson by now. So I can tell you I am only reasonably sure of most of my ideas – confident, but not without forgetting that they could be wrong, and that I always have to keep in mind that!

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