When E.O. Wilson was studying biology at the University of Alabama after World War II, he read an article about how European runners were better than Americans. They trained harder. Their disciplines were tougher. You could bet on it: Europeans would dominate the 1948 Olympics. A European would break the 4-minute mile.
Wilson bought a pair of surplus Army boots and started running. He thought the heavy boots would make him faster. He didn’t tell anyone about his inspiration. He just ran — for hours at a time.
It was my kind of activity: do it alone, avoid the drag of teams, have no one witness your trials and failures, until you can accomplish some exceptional feat.
Months later he tried out for the track team, lacing up spikes for the first time. He ran a mile, timed by a coach.
He wasn’t close. Determination and discipline are wonderful, but being an elite athlete is more about heredity.
Characteristically, Wilson thought about it:
The experience has often made me think more objectively about my own limitations and more generally about those of the species to with I belong. For the obsessed and ambitious, the only strategy is to probe in all directions and learn where one’s abilities are exceptional, where mediocre, where poor, then fashion tactics and prostheses to achieve the best possible result. And never give up hope that the fates will allow some unexpected breakthrough.
I’ve often wondered about education — what a good education would look like and what good educational advice would sound like. I think Wilson is right. If you are looking for a way to assess yourself, the agony of defeat is as important as the thrill of victory.
If you’re wondering what Wilson meant by “prostheses,” he had collaborators who helped with math. He was one of the most influential biologists of the 20th century, but he needed help in working out the mathematical models for his own ideas.
• Source: Edward O. Wilson, Naturalist; Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1994, pp. 118 and 121-2.
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