Big dreams

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Great inventors need to invest blood, sweat, and tears. That is the 99% perspiration of the famous Thomas Edison quotation. Nothing comes to fruition without the developer having the technical knowledge and skills to make an idea a reality, as well as the perseverance to try out the permutations.Still, that other 1% - the inspiration - is a pesky minority. It may be minor, but it is also essential. You can't have a successful invention with only the other 99%. You have to start with a good idea.

I have never deluded myself that I will possess the genius of the great inventors. I will avoid false modestly and state simply that I possess many of the traits needed for the 99%. I am diligent (when I want to be). I am educated and well-trained. I have the technical abilities in my toolbox. But I don't think I have that essential 1% spark of genius. I think, in my most essential core, I am just too chicken. I see all the "why nots" too soon to ever develop a nascent idea. I won't waste any tears over that; I don't think it inhibits me from doing my own job, which I like doing. And if 1% of the students I teach over the years go on to have that 1% inspiration for genius, it won't come from me. But I like to think that I will have contributed to the other 99% of their make-up, that allows their 1% spark to be fruitful. And I will still have had a hand in just a few geniuses over my career - more than enough to satisfy my sense of self-value.

Which is why it is always surprising to me to see some glimmer of that spark in my own offspring. James was talking in the car with Jeremy recently. We've been discussing different educational options for him lately, which has had him thinking more deliberately about his school choices than he has ever before had cause to do. In that context, he asked Jeremy what he would need to study to be able to build an idea he has had in his mind for a while. He described it then to Jeremy for the first time.

"I want to build a helicopter that can't crash. If the rotors lose power, then the speed of falling would make the rotors spin fast enough to provide lift and allow the copter to land softly and safely."

Sounds great to me. Would never have occurred to me.  And I believe he just might do it someday. I find it is much easier to have faith in the potential of my children than in my own potential. So dream on, James!