Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Being a dynamic incompetent

"Young man," the Austrian said gravely, "a disaster happens to many, many of our best scientists. They become administrators. And the day they do that, they're lost to science. So you never want to become an administrator. You have to guard against that."
"But Dr. Suess," piped Broecker, "how do I do that?"
"Be a dynamic incompetent! Do at least three outrageous acts a year. Then no one will want you to be an administrator."

Wallace Broecker and Robert Kunzig, "CO2 - Fixing Climate", chapter "Carbon dioxide and the Keeling curve".

I'll have to remember that one for the rest of my career!...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should I consider it as a feature of your character, from now on ;)

F

Cedric said...

I don't know, I haven't tried yet, but if it works, no one should know it is on purpose! So, no word about that...;-)