In 1928, Alexander Fleming found some blue-green mold in his lab at St. Mary’s Hospital. That discovery ended up being the basis for the discovery of penicillin. But what would have happened if Fleming simply threw away the mold?
In 1856, two quarry workers found some bones at their limestone quarry near Düsseldorf and passed the bones along to their manager. Those bones ended up being the first official discovery of remains of Neanderthal man. But what would have happened if those workers had simply thrown away the bones?
There are tons of examples of serendipitous discoveries, but what’s often forgotten in those reports is that the people that made the discoveries decided to explore anomalies instead of just throwing them away.
We throw valuable information away every second. Not all the information we receive will lead to great discoveries, but every piece of information that comes our way has the possibility to teach us new and exciting things if we just take it in instead of throwing it away.
That strange blip on your site statistics? That odd reaction by that one user? That little bug in your application that never seems to go away? Don’t throw away those anomalies: they could be hiding great discoveries.
What kinds of amazing things are you throwing away every day?
Damn!
A great article and observation! What precipitated this article? What have you discovered? A way to have a clean face without shaving? Or a way to have our political leaders work together? Or maybe you discovered a new “love” in your life?
Now you got me keeping my eyes open…..
Haha…glad you’re keeping your eyes open, that was the whole point of the article!
The only thing I’ve really discovered is that there are some great gems hidden out there that I’ve been ignoring — and that I’m not going to ignore them anymore. =)
Kia ora Sameer
Nice post!
The usefulness of discoveries is a fascinating serendipitous occurrence too. Very recently I wrote about this in a comment on one of my own posts while discussing another aspect in a similar context.
A good example from history is the difference between the life works of Newton and Cavendish.
Both these scientists had their moments in life. But Newton was an advocate for what he believed and what he discovered.
Cavendish, on the other hand, was equally as brilliant. Much of his life’s work, his discoveries, might as well have been lost, for all the use he put them to for the benefit of society.
What he believed and discovered was later re-discovered by other brilliant scientists. They learnt of what Cavendish did by sheer chance and dilligence while researching through the historical works of others. It was also at a time when much of Cavendish’s work had already been re-discovered by them and others. Sad really. But there it is.
Catchya later
Great story Ken. Part of the process of discovery is definitely learning from the discoveries of others!
Kia ora Sameer
Yes, I agree about some of the process of discovery being to do with learning from the discovery of others. And Newton did this and admitted it.
Unfortunately in the case of the scientists who moved in Cavendish’s footsteps, they had already re-discovered much of what was useful BEFORE they found that Cavendish had already done it.
Because of the obscure nature of the way Cavendish worked, and his diffidence to be explicit when he published, he was either misunderstood or completely ignored.
Catchya later
This post made me think of a great book I’m reading. You might want to check out In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré.
With technology it is easy to get information overload and potentialy miss the ‘gems’. I’m trying to slow down and look deeper into fewer items. Already finding it is much more enjoyable and engaging.
Imagine of Fleming had thrown away the mold so he could clear his unread RSS?
Thought provoking post.
Funny you should mention Carl Honoré, Phil. I actually just finished his book a few weeks ago. He makes some amazing points, and I recommend anyone to read it. For a quick taste, here’s Honoré’s talk at TED on video.