Early on, he realized he was a janitor of science - just taking care of things, but not really making a dent
Was envious of good scientists
Wondered what's the diff between good and great people?
Do Significant Things
Fame And Luck
Luck favors the prepared mind
Prepare yourself by the way you lead your life from day to day
To a great extent it is constant, hard work
Early indicators, like IQ, don't really factor in - Newton and Einstein and a few others weren't really special as youngsters
Confidence
Believe you're doing great things
Use Claude Shannon's motto "I ain't scared of nothin'" for bold breakthroughs
Overconfidence is bad. What's overconfidence? It's like the diff between strong-willed and stubborn
Importance
If what you're doing is not important, why are you doing it? Work on important things.
Nobel winners tend to get on committees and have no time to do work anymore, and stop doing important things
Those who keep their office door closed can do good work, but are often disconnected from reality, and this keeps them from doing important work. Those who keep their door opened tend to be connected and working on important things
Important things have an attack. Some things that are important (ie time travel) have no real means of attack, so it's disqualified as truly important for you.
Excellence
Whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to do well
When you have a vision of what you're going to do and what you're going to be, you're going to get far
The drunken sailor: when he's gotta get from point A to B, will wander and take many steps, but eventually get there. If there's a pretty girl at point B, he'll get there much faster and directly.
Study great people
Success
What appears to be a defect is an answer. Turn the problem around
Study your successes - not failures
The race is not to the swift. A combo of style and taste will equal success.
There's a million races being run, you just gotta get in one of 'em and win.
Focus
Set aside some time to stop and think: what's going on, what's important, what are the fundamentals behind it?
Learn new things to give you perspective on your field
Ambiguity
Believe in what's true, but hold out some disbelief to enable you to make the jump.
Greatness consists of seeing what other people have missed, and seizing upon contradictions and making the new step forward - you have to tolerage ambiguity
Style
It ain't what you do, it's the way you do it
Get clear on a thing, and be able to communicate it, orally, written, and casually
What talks are effective? What style can you adapt?
Change
Change != progress, but progress requires change
Most people and institutions don't like change
The onus is on you to demonstrate greatness, and then you'll get the opportunity
"Repent your idle ways, and get down and be somebody worth being"
