Paul GrahamVerified account

Biological science is great for that.

In his "Recollections of an Exciting Era," Dirac makes many similar confessions, noting in particular how frustrated he was, when the notion occurred to him that the Poisson bracket might correspond to the commutator, at his inability to remember just what a Poisson bracket was.

It's a very honest book. The truth is, almost everyone is making it up as they go along.

That’s because he left the woman working with him out of the picture.

He didn't need to - that's what Crick was for

This is an extraordinary gift for a couple reasons 1) it increases learning and 2) it questions the very concepts one is trying to understand instead of superficially accepting them.

including biochemistry!

In The Double Helix, Watson reminded me of those people who say “let’s start a startup to get rich” instead of starting with a problem. He was after the Nobel prize from the beginning. Crazy that this strategy works for founders and scientists alike.