Topical Guide 594
Mark Dorset
Ideas: Their Power
Analogy: Dangers of
Where Do You Stop? Chapter 12:
The film ended. The fluorescent lights stuttered and flickered into life.
“We just have time for a few questions,” said Miss Rheingold.
Hands shot up all over the room. Miss Rheingold beamed with pleasure and satisfaction. […]
“Can you use just regular mousetraps, or do you have to get that model 235 they were using there in the movie?”
It took Miss Rheingold a moment to recognize what a depth of misunderstanding underlay this question. When she did, her shoulders and the corners of her mouth dropped simultaneously. “Oh,” she said, or perhaps she just moaned. The bell rang.
We hear from time to time about the power of an idea to influence people, as individuals and in the mass. Usually it’s politicians, religious fanatics, or pop philosophers who expect to use ideas to whip people into line, but the most powerful idea I’ve ever encountered had nothing to do with phony promises, false gods, or bogus ontologies. It was that table covered with mousetraps and Ping-Pong balls. Now that was a powerful idea!
Malcolm W. Browne, “A Perpetual Student Charts a Course Through a Universe of Discoveries,” The New York Times, Sunday, February 27, 2000
It takes a prepared mind to appreciate the value of a subtle experiment that may have a null result, and a science writer must impart this appreciation to readers, even at the cost of glazing a few eyes.
One trick of the trade is the use of analogy to convey the flavor of an idea, discovery, or equation. But effective though analogies may be, they are never exactly appropriate and sometimes are downright wrong. It’s probably O.K. to call a proton a “beanbag” containing three quarks, but to call a proton accelerator an “atom smasher” makes physicists squirm.
See also:
Ideas: Half-Baked, Borrowed, Stolen, French TG 487; “Overly Simple” TG 588
Misunderstanding TG 574
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide. The Substack serialization of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies, Herb ’n’ Lorna, and Reservations Recommended.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document) and at Encyclopedia.com.