The spark that lights the fire.

Finished Part II of the Talent Code, the bit about igniting the fire of motivation.

That section talks a lot about the very small things that, received at the right moment, can fire up a young person. (Including a KIP academy that names its classrooms after the University the teacher went to).

I am a scientist (once a scientist, always a scientist). So I obviously hold Nobel prize winners in awe. Never thought I'd ever meet one face to face.

Imagine my surprise today when I discovered that I once met one of this year's Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry - at a dinner at his dad's house (my wife is his dad's friend). Can you imagine what sort of spark his school-age nephews/nieces are getting about science?

Do students of science play 6 degrees of separation from other famous scientists? Shouldn't they?


If we're playing, then I can throw in that many years ago I stopped to help someone change a flat tire, and he turned out to be the founder/father of his field - going on to train a postdoc who continued their early work and went on to win a Nobel Prize for it.