lost in the land of discovery

The first professor who made an impression on me in college was a close relative of Paul No Exit Dracula who spent his entire first hour and a half telling us what kept him going was the hope, the dream, the ultimate goal of his life was to influence a future president of the United States to learn to think like himself. So we can see where most of his students got us today. Well most, if not all, of my education descended upon me in that land of discovery, often in a light sprinkly rain via osmosis while hovering over the magazines in the Harvard Square Out of Town News kiosk and, not coincidentally, while warming up, amid the used books squirrelled haphazard-like in surrounding stores. One of my heroes in college was Eric Hoffer who is known for the slim book, the True Believer. The book made no lasting impression on me but Eric did. He got his education in libraries on his travels as a laborer and after he became famous was asked for his research methods which I cannot resist embellishing something like this... I walk straight up into the library and turn left, unless the sun is coming through the windows on my right, then I might turn right and look at the titles that are at eye level.  His idea was that if you found one decent idea in a book you were well rewarded, and if by chance two, then you were beyond the high reaches of fortunate. After finding that particular paragraph the rest was all fluff. Indeed in my experience much of the time, after a great title, the anticipation is all downhill. In life, as in education, all one really learns at the end of the day is that the secret is in the sauce.