If an idea does not appear bizarre, there is no hope for it.
Interpretation
Bizarre ideas are often the foundation of great innovation and progress.
This quote by Niels Bohr emphasizes that truly revolutionary ideas may seem strange or unconventional at first. It suggests that if an idea is not perceived as bizarre or unusual, it may lack the transformative potential needed to lead to significant breakthroughs, highlighting the importance of creativity and open-mindedness in scientific and intellectual pursuits.
In practice
During a brainstorming session to encourage creative thinking among team members.
When asked ... [about] an underlying quantum world, Bohr would answer, 'There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.'
An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators.
And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it.
I felt dumb and subdued. Every time I tried to concentrate, my mind glided off, like a skater, into a large empty space, and pirouetted there, absently.
It was my delusion and naivety that brought me here.
To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.
Where there is no vision, there is no hope.
You people are telling me what you think I want to know. I want to know what is actually happening.
If I have gained anything over these months, it is the knowledge there is no starting over- only living with the mistakes you've made.
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