## Why I'm interested in them ## Notes ## Inputs ### Wikipedia > Soon after entering elementary school, Sagan began to express his strong inquisitiveness about nature. He recalled taking his first trips to the public library alone, at age five, when his mother got him a library card. He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his friends or their parents could give him a clear answer: "I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars […] and the answer was stunning. It was that the Sun was a star, but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light. The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me." - The initial intense curiosity and passion has never died since > Sagan said: "My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method." - Developed skills unintentionally, the way you can reframe your situation and experiences to apply it to new places > The denial has been blamed on several factors, including that he focused his interests too broadly across a number of areas (while the norm in academia is to become a renowned expert in a narrow specialty) - Also known to be a generalist > "Some persons work best in specializing on a major program in the laboratory; others are best in liaison between sciences. Dr. Sagan belongs in the latter group." - Maybe a strong sense of curiosity compels you to be a generalist, which is what the current education system does not acommodate. > Sagan was also known for his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of [scientific skepticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_skepticism "Scientific skepticism") and against [pseudoscience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience "Pseudoscience" - Resonating quote but in my case for my own passions ### All ```dataview table Created, rating, source FROM #input AND !"Hidden" AND [[]] SORT Created desc ```