A few years back, a government science agency did a poll to try to understand the public’s perceptions of the work they funded. One of the biggest surprises was how people felt about public funding for “basic research.” Most people felt the government should not be spending tax money on “basic research” at all. Instead, those funds should go into “advanced research”. The results showed a clear gap between what scientists mean by basic research, and what almost everyone else thinks it means.

Non-Scientists Misunderstand What Basic Research Is

For scientists, basic research really means fundamental research. But to understand its meaning even better, we need to contrast the idea of “basic” with that of “applied.” There is no immediate application for the fruits of basic research. They will not immediately become a gizmo in our next car or a molecule in our next medicine. Instead, the point of basic research is something far less tangible: pure understanding. That is why scientists call it fundamental. The goal is to understand some aspect of a subject at its most essential level.

Basic Research = Fundamental Research 

The history of scientific research is full of helpful examples. In 1905, for instance, Albert Einstein published his epoch-making paper on the theory of special relativity, which focused on the most basic concepts physics uses to understand everything: matter, motion, and energy. The versions of those concepts that still prevailed at that time had been developed a few hundred years earlier by Isaac Newton.

Basic Research Examples

Einstein saw how limited were Newton’s descriptions of these fundamental players in physics. The relationships Newtonian physics described between, say, energy and motion (i.e., velocity) did not tell the whole story. Einstein developed a more basic, more fundamental understanding of such relationships, and in the process, he gave physics new equations like E = mc2 .Einstein’s basic research changed the world forever. A list of the actual downstream applications from his paper would easily be as long as 2 ft. and would include everything from radiation therapy to hyper-accurate GPS satellites.

Basic Research Changes The World Forever

When Einstein was working on this paper, he was not thinking about how these formulas would be applied to any particular industry, or to the medical field. He was no doubt aware that his ideas would find such applications. They were too important not to become the foundation for new machines and new techniques that would affect everyday life. But applications were just not what he was doing or why he was doing it.

Basic Research Is After Pure Understanding

The Einstein example shows that basic research is, indeed, very advanced. In fact, it is the most advanced of all the kinds of research out there, because it pushes at the frontiers of knowledge. In today’s world, such basic research takes many forms. In cosmology, it is about understanding the first few instants after the big bang. In biology, it is about understanding how life uses information to carry out its most basic tasks. In cognitive science, it is about understanding how the brain sorts its many inputs into what is relevant and what is not.

The Fringes And The Frontiers

The most important point about basic research is that it is almost always the key to cutting-edge applied research. All of the specific applied research that led to the zillions of technological marvels we encounter every day began with someone asking a very basic question, applied to nothing.What we call “basic research” is actually the most cutting-edge. It underpins knowledge, and without it, technology does not come into being.

Asking A Very Basic Question, Applied To Nothing

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Everything should be done as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

A lesson on basic research that doubles as a reminder on the impact of words. “Basic research” is not “base-level”, but actually the most cutting-edge. It underpins knowledge, and without it, technology does not come into being.

What we call "basic research" is the most cutting-edge. It underpins knowledge, and without it, technology does not come into being.

What Einstein Did Was “Basic Research”. Wait, What?

<ul><li>We need to change our perspective on failure.</li><li>Plenty of us have an image of only successful people who never made mistakes or failures, when in reality, we all do - some just manage to make it look prettier than others</li><li>Failure is a large part of what it means to be human.</li></ul>

Perspective is everything

Set the right expectations for people. Don't waste time trying to convince people they'll succeedGet right down to what happens when things go wrong. Every little one goes through struggles as they learn to walk, and determination is all it takes to find dexterity

Set the right expectations for people

<ul><li>Facing hardship and enduring failure teaches us how to succeed.</li><li>Failure is a positive thing. A failure is simply something to work past, and my determination gives me an edge over other people.</li><li>Without any kind of challenge, success would likely be meaningless.</li></ul>

It's okay to fail

The only thing anyone can do for themselves is try their best and never give up.Try not to whine about how tough things are going to be or how much pressure there was from adults telling you this wasn't going to work.

Labels don't matter

Entrepreneurship is a never-ending process of refinement through trial and error. Failure is a natural part of success.We need to change our perspective on failure. Stop avoiding it, stop shaming others who make them, and start looking at what they can teach us about ourselves.

Success is built on a foundation of previous failure

Making mistakes is just another step in achieving your goals. We need to change our perspective on failure.

Stashed ideas

Why You Need To Change Your Perspective on Failure

Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.

1: Never outshine the master

The key to power is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies

Hide your intentions not by closing up but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals— just not your real ones.

3: Conceal Your Intentions

Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words. Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control.

4: Always say less than necessary

Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

5: So much depends on reputation, guard it with your life

Surround your name with the sensational and the scandalous.Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored.

6: Court attention at all costs

For negotiations or meetings, it is always wise to lure others into your territory, or the territory of your choice. You have your bearings, While they see nothing familiar and are subtly placed on the defensive.

7: Make other people come to you, use bait if necessary

When you suspect you are in the presence of an infector, don’t argue, don’t try to help, don’t pass the person on to your friends, or you will become enmeshed. Flee the infector’s presence or suffer the consequences.

8: Infection: Avoid the unhappy or the unlucky

The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear.You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

9: Use absence to increase strength and honor

Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time. Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your strength.

10:  Do not commit to anyone, but be courted by all.

10 Powerful Lessons From the Book “The 48 Laws of Power”

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Published By Me

The 48 Laws of Power

The fixed mindset says: “I can’t do it”. The growth mindset says: “I can’t do it yet”.

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?

People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenges, they thrive on them.

The growth mindset does allow people to love what they’re doing—and to continue to love it in the face of difficulties.

The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.

The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.

Becoming is better than being. The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be

People with the growth mindset, however, believe something very different. For them, even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements

hose with the growth mindset found setbacks motivating. They’re informative. They’re a wake-up call.

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.

10 Deep Insights From the Book “Mindset”

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset. Dweck explains why it's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn't foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

Mindset - Updated Edition

<ul><li>Before modern medicine, unexplained women's behaviors and illnesses were diagnosed as hysteria.</li><li>Symptoms of hysteria included fever and physical pain, as well as behaviors that didn't fit female stereotypes of passivity, feebleness, and fragility.</li><li>Mood swings, anxiety, and depression were all considered symptoms of hysteria.</li></ul>

Anorexia and Hysteria: A Shared History

<ul><li>Psychiatry asylums played a role in anorexia being recognized as its own medical condition separate from hysteria</li><li>At first, psychiatric institutions were places where people with mental illnesses were looked after, but not treated</li><li>This changed with a mental health reformation</li><li>People began to see mental illness as either curable or at least manageable through kindness and therapy</li><li>Psychiatric institutions began offering treatments and rehabilitation to the poor, and accountability came with it.</li></ul>

Separating Anorexia from Hysteria

<ul><li>Since the mid-1800s, we've gained a deeper understanding of why anorexia develops, but its early associations with hysteria have been difficult to escape</li><li>Anorexia and hysteria are not the same illness</li><li>In a 1982 Life Magazine article, it was claimed that "hysteria has almost disappeared, but if there is an equivalent today it is ANorexia, the psychosomatic disorder of young, middle-class women who won't eat."</li><li>A 1988 article from Harvard scientists still suggested that both illnesses were caused by female cultural stereotypes.</li></ul>

Modern Misconception

<ul><li>A psychosomatic disorder is a condition where observed physical symptoms don’t have medical explanations.</li><li>These symptoms are instead attributed to psychological things (e.g., stress, emotions, and personality).</li><li>Many times, we just haven't found medical explanations for them yet.</li><li>However, because we are beginning to find a medical explanation for why anorexia develops (particularly genetics and neurochemical dysfunction), we can't call it a purely psychosomatic condition.</li></ul>

Psychosomatic Disorder

<ul><li>Alexithymia is a personality trait that makes it difficult to identify our feelings, describe what other people are feeling, and to think imaginatively.</li><li>Illness denial is more difficult to find a medical explanation for, but emerging neurological explanations suggest that people with anorexia are not denying their illness out of stubbornness.</li></ul>

Medical Explanations for Psychosomatic Symptoms in Anorexia

Early links to hysteria have contributed to misconceptions about anorexia.

What Einstein Did Was “Basic Research”. Wait, What?

Why You Need To Change Your Perspective on Failure

The 48 Laws of Power

Mindset - Updated Edition

Where Did Anorexia Stereotypes Come From?

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