Challenging Newton’s Apple

Recently The Royal Society put their copy of the best evidence in the world about the fabled story of Newton watching an apple fall up on the web. NPR picked up the story here.

In my besteller, the Myths of Innovation, I spend a chapter exploring the failings of the story, and others like it, and how misused these tales often are.

But I have doubts this event ever took place. The book The Royal Society posted was titled Memoirs of Isaac Newton, written by his friend William Stukeley.

Here are the facts:

  • Stukeley interviewed Newton in 1726. Newton died in 1727. Stukeley published his “Memoirs of Newton’ in 1752 at earliest.  Meaning Newton never saw the book.
  • The story comes from a ‘biographer’ (Stukeley), writing about Newton. Biographers, certainly in 1720, are not objective reporters running around checking facts. They are often fans of their subjects, as Stukeley was of Newton.
  • At the time they talked they were sitting under apple trees.
  • The entire account is written by Stukeley, not Newton, despite the title.
  • The ‘event’ Newton supposedly told Stukeley, happened 60 years earlier.
  • There are few other first person source anywhere, in Newton’s journals or other biographies, of ‘the event’. (Please comment if I’m wrong).

In James Glieck’s excellent biography, Isaac Newton, he strongly suggests Newton offered the story as an metaphoric anecdote, as way to express his curiosity about the world, rather than as a literal tale about specific singular moment that redefined his view of things.

(for Americans: the bit about getting hit on the head was added much later, as often happens with myths. And it appeared in Schoolhouse rock).

Now my point here is not to say epiphanies never happen. Most creative people have them now and then, and I do too (but I argue they are overrated and do not eliminate the hard work and risk that follows them. Newton worked for a decade to complete his theory on gravity that he became famous for). I’m also not questioning Newton’s genius – he was one.  But reasonable doubt about this legend is warranted given the extremely thin evidence we have.

Frankly I don’t trust Stukeley. He was apparently a good friend of Newton’s. Just as I wouldn’t trust a biographer/friend interviewing someone famous late in their life, who somehow manages to tell only them a story about something that happened decades ago, that the famous person never mentioned in any of their own extensive journals and writings or interviews with other people.  I can guess Stukeley wanted Newton to look good. He also wanted his book to be read (though the publishing history of the memoir is unclear). And in the spirit of those two things some exaggeration of facts and conversion of abstract anecdotes into real specific events would not be surprising.

In an article at The Independent, one of the few pieces this week to do research at all, offers this report from an expert at the Royal Society, which owns the manuscript:

“Newton cleverly honed this anecdote over time,” said Keith Moore, head of archives at the Royal Society. “The story was certainly true, but let’s say it got better with the telling.” The story of the apple fitted with the idea of an Earth-shaped object being attracted to the Earth. It also had a resonance with the Biblical account of the tree of knowledge, and Newton was known to have extreme religious views, Mr Moore said.

Newton had a huge ego and was kind of a jerk. This is undisputed. A living legend telling exaggerated tales about things that happened decades ago seems possible.

I’m surprised that in the history of science so few people have raised any questions at all.

I’d love to see the web help me round out the facts, find experts and other familiar with the sources.  Spread the word.

How to stop overcommunication

Spolsky’s latest piece is about Brook’s law, and how adding people to projects can make them worse.

For those unfamiliar, Brook’s law states that when you add a person, you geometricly increase the amount of communication people of the project have to do, suggesting it’s a bad idea.

While I agree with the law, there are important exceptions I’ve identified -  depending who the person in question is (elite or bozo), how good they are at jumping in tough territory (ninja or bozo),  and how much they already know about the project (familiar or bozo newbie).

Spolsky’s points are generally sound, but I believe there’s a deeper cause for overcommunication.

The reason committees suck is authority is distributed across a large number of people. This makes everyone feel like everyone needs to know about everything. And worse, people fight in the backroom to obtain control over the committee, so the visible authority and real authority can be far apart.

Overcommunication is a symptom of lack of clarity over power.  If you want better communication, clarify the following:

  • Who is the single person who has decision making authority for decision X
  • Who should have input into that decision
  • Who should be informed when the decision has been made

This sets everyone’s expectations for who needs to know what.  It reduces endless forwarding of fyi material on the hopes someone might need it.

The person with decision making authority should be collaborating with others, and can delegate their authority, but no one should ever be confused that they have the power to make the call.

45 people can not effectively make a decision together. But 44 people can council one wise, empowered person to make a more effective decision.

Like Spolsky, I agree things would be better if there were 5 people in the room, instead of 45, but the clear distribution of power is the problem I’d solve first.

Countdown to 1000 posts

This post, according to wordpress, is #952.  I have about 50 more to go to hit the 1000 mark.

Since my posts tend towards new material, rather than just a link and a sentence, this is a shitload of words.

I’m grateful to all the folks who subscribe, read, forward, comment and even snark here, as this blog has been a critical part of my successful independent life so far.

I’d like to do something fun here when I hit post #1000.  Open to suggestions – leave ‘em in the comments. Thanks.

How to be passionate (when you open your mouth)

Vijay recently asked in the comments on a recent talk:

Thank you for a great presentation.  I noticed that your energy was explosive and  there was absolutely no point in the presentation where I could detect a lull. I am interested in learning if you have any secrets or techniques in  maintaining the focus of not just the audience, but also  yourself as I often space out even when I am working on something that I am passionate about.

Explosive energy makes me think of being a drummer in Spinal Tap. Perhaps I should tone it down.

There are four things going on.

  1. My life is at stake.  I have bet I can make a living on my ideas and my ability to express them. I have no guarantees, no salary and no pension. Every time I write a blog post, a book or a give a talk I’m basically an entrepreneur. I’m not half invested. This isn’t a side project. THIS IS IT. I need people to buy my books, hire me to speak, and to tell others about me. When you’ve invested your heart in something, it’s much easier to appear passionate about it, because you are.
  2. I believe what I say . I really hate phony people. I hate people who water things down, intentionally mislead, or pretend they care about things they don’t. How much of what is said at work do people truly believe or care about? I think very carefully, and long, about most of what I create, and so when the time comes to give a presentation, or write a book, my points are things I truly believe.  And I’ve worked hard to make them concise. I’m not holding much back because I know it’s easier to get excited about things you deeply believe, especially if they’ve been boiled down to their essence. If you asked me to talk about my favorite tax software, or which 401k forms I liked the most, passion would be hard to find.
  3. I’ve extended my range.  If you can only play one note on your guitar, you can’t do very much. Musicians, especially singers, practice to extend their range. Most speakers have a narrow range. They only know how to get from volume level 4 to 5. If you practice, and listen to other great speakers carefully, you’ll notice how wide their range is. They can whisper (volume level 2) or almost holler (volume level 7).  You also have a range of gestures, and postures, and facial expressions. The wider your range the more tools you have to express passion, or curiosity, or humor, or anything. You extend your range through practice and coaching. I never want to be too passionate, as it’s easy to sound like a preacher on cocaine or Billy Mays. Instead my goal is to be at high level of enthusiasm  without crossing over into annoying.
  4. I have great respect for anyone who voluntarily listens to me. Speaking and writing are very subjective, and I know that reasonable people might not like me, or what I have to say. But their sense of how much energy and effort I put in is something undeniable. I never want to be dismissed by people for not being sincere. They can hate me, prove me wrong, heckle me, whatever, but at the end of the day I don’t want anyone leaving the room, or finishing one of my books, feeling like I gave half an effort.  Frankly any speaker is burning way more calories per second than any listener, but that’s often forgotten by most listeners, it’s a consumer’s market when it comes to things to consume.

Hope that helps. Let me know if it doesn’t.

For reference, here’s me speaking at Ignite:

Free chapters from Confessions

These were up on the amazon.com page as a special promotion, but amazon took them down recently.

Here they are:

Chapter 2 – Attack of the Butterflies
Chapter 3 – $30,000 an hour

So if you’ve seen me speak, and wonder “is his writing as good as his speaking”, now you can find out for free :)

I try very hard to make my books, and presentations, different things so experiencing one doesn’t ruin the experience of the other. I really hate seeing someone speak, buy their book, and then realize I already heard all the good stuff. I try very hard to make each thing stand alone.

Wednesday linkfest

Here are these week’s links:

  • Designing for panic -  The idea of help in software has always had the vague intention of being there in emergencies. But almost never has it provided the simple set of usefulness Uday suggests here (hat tip d&i daily)
  • The science of expectations – Interesting little summary of how expectations impact the release of dopamine. On the positive side this means controling your expectations can make you happier. But it also means you are vulnerable to being addicted to intermediate variable rewards (Slot machines and video games).
  • How to use an apostrophe – I get this wrong all the time, I know. But for me it’s not the rules, which I know, it’s the challenge of diligently reviewing my own work.  Which believe it or not I’m much better at that I used to be.
  • How to train the aging brain – This is surprisingly simple article in the NYT that basically says if you question your assumptions and consume diverse ideas that challenge you, your brain works better.  But there isnt much evidence this is any more important at age 70 than it is at age 20.
  • Stats for fiction rejections -  An agent tallies up her reasons for rejecting manuscripts. I talk about the essential nature of rejection for creatives  in What to do if the world hates your idea.
  • Maybe next time you’ll buy the cookies – Oh come on. How can you not laugh at this?
  • Small by choice – article in the NYT about small businesses that intend to stay small. Also see Small and special a recent event run by the folks at Jackson Fish, that solidifies this ideas a verifiable movement.

Scott's Bestselling Books
  • Confessions of a
    Public Speaker
  • Provocative and funny secrets from a veteran speaker, you'll laugh as you learn.
  • Buy now at Amazon Book Details
  • The Myths of Innovation
  • The classic bestseller on how amazing lessons from the past can help you innovate today.
  • Buy now at Amazon Book Details
  • Making Things Happen
  • The classic and bestselling handbook for any project leader, packed with tactics and stories.
  • Buy now at Amazon Book Details
Photos from Recent Events (view flickr stream)

You're reading Scott Berkun, All rights reserved unless noted. You can subscribe here Blog RSS Comments (RSS)