[ExI] Lessons from Tesla?

[Dan]

To me, perhaps based on ignorance, it seems Tesla is used to score many points these days -- well, for as long as I can remember though more so in the last five years -- regarding unrewarded or underrated genius and whether someone is a crackpot. To me, much of this seems like a source inspiration that at its best might encourage some to keep trying (to invent, explore, build, succeed) or to give those who they currently doubt (the inventors, explorers, dreamers, etc. who have not yet succeeded) a fair shake. That's all well and good, but I fear it's become cliche and all too often just an excuse not to think critically -- sort of like the view that Einstein was shut out of the scientific community (he wasn't exactly, but so goes the popular story) yet came up with brilliant and widely accepted ideas. That does inspire some, but it also seem to shut off critical thinking in others.

Now, that said, I don't know that there's a foolproof formula to decide what ideas or inspirations lead to success or that anyone can know the costs ahead of time of following or not following a certain lead. What do the rest of you think? Does the Tesla icon provide enough positive benefits to outweigh what I believe are its misleading aspects?

Regards, 

Dan 
"Born With Teeth," my latest story, is now available at: 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N72FBA2
It's set in Seattle and you can preview it on the site.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20140924/3b4ce73c/attachment.html>