James Baquet

    Mark is chatting with his classmate Ming in the common room of their dorm.

    Mark: Hi, Ming. What’s that you’re reading?

    Ming: Oh, these are just some quotes by Einstein.

    Mark: He was really wise!

    Ming: Do you think? I mean, just because he was a scientist, that doesn’t prove he knew anything about life.

    Mark: You’re right. I think it was Socrates who said a man should stick to his own field.

    Ming: Yeah?

    Mark: Yeah. Essentially, he said it’s best to assume that you know nothing. And he scolded people for speaking outside their area of expertise.

    Ming: I had no idea.

    Mark: So-called “Socratic wisdom” means knowing the limits of your knowledge.

    Ming: But that didn’t stop Einstein from talking about God, and life, and all kinds of things.

    Mark: I know. We can trust him on physics, but on anything else, we need to judge what he said the way we would the words of anyone else.

    Ming: Okay. So what do you think of this? “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

    Mark: Whoa! That’s a little confusing!

    Ming: I know.

    Mark: Okay. “Things that can be counted” are material things, right? Money, cars, houses, and so on?

    Ming: Okay.

    Mark: So ol’ Uncle Al is saying those are not necessarily important.

    Ming: They don’t all “count” or matter.

    Mark: Uh-huh. And then?

    Ming: “Not everything that counts can be counted.”

    Mark: So there are important things that are not material.

    Ming: They “count,” but we can’t “count” them.

    Mark: I think you’ve got it. Can you paraphrase the whole thing?

    Ming: “Not everything that is material is important, and not everything that is important is material.”

    Mark: That’s almost as confusing as Einstein’s! Okay, what’s another?

    Ming: “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”

    Mark: That’s pretty clear, right?

    Ming: Right. People who lie about little things will lie about big things. Do you think that’s true?

    Mark: I’m not sure. Maybe. But it’s a pretty common idea.

    Ming: Really?

    Mark: Really. The idea is, the worker or student or whoever does a job on small things gets trusted with bigger ones.

    Ming: Yeah, I get that. Okay, here’s another that kind of surprised me: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” I mean, he was Einstein! Of course he was talented!

    Mark: But he says “no.” It was curiosity, and not intelligence, that helped him make his discoveries.

    Ming: Well, I’ll have to think about that one.

    Mark: Good! It proves you’re curious! See ya, Ming.

    Ming: Bye, Mark.