Samuel Butler’s idea for teaching people how to do great things is the following (as quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 264): All men can do great things, if they know what great things are.
The idea is germane to educating graduate students, if modified to: “Graduate students can do great things, once they are shown what great things are.” To this end, why not do away with university research seminars? They expose graduate students to medium standards; the seminars are invariably given by resident professors reporting average research. Instead of local greatness, wouldn’t it be better to expose students to global greatness? Wouldn’t it be better to saturate them with the best science, as published in the best science journals? It is hard to imagine a more effective way of raising them to do great research.
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For a brief biography of Samuel Butler, click here.
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