Astonished by Outliers

Yesterday, I started reading George Orwell’s ‘1984’. The book was written in 1949 and imagines a dystopia set in 1984. As I read the preface, I got to know what makes this book special. The fact that the political history of the world unfolded in a similar fashion as mentioned in the book, making it almost prophetic, and that the terms coined by Orwell (such as Big Brother and Thought Police) are now part of popular political jargon. But what blew me the most away was that Orwell wrote it while suffering from Tuberculosis and died the year after it was published. He gave the world one of the finest pieces of literature and died at 46.

I wonder how some individuals are able contribute something so original that the next generations are spent just understanding, explaining and building upon their work. Most of literature, science, technology, music and art are just copied, inspired from, or built upon other people’s work. Ever so rarely does it happen that someone creates an original piece from the ground up and changes the world forever.

When put under quarantine during the 1665 plague, Isaac Newton invented calculus, laws of gravity, and optics. Safe to say he single handedly shaped most of physics. Until about 300 years later, when Albert Einstein broke it with his general theory of relativity.

Sigmund Freud developed the technique of psychoanalysis, or modern day therapy as we know it, giving a rebirth to the field of psychology.

Charles Darwin published his book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, proposing the theory of evolution, or basically, laying the foundation of Biology.

When hired to decrypt the codes from Enigma machine during WWII, Alan Turing built a counter machine to do his job. Today we call it ‘computer’.

Yes, history is filled with innovators, inventors, polymaths, geniuses, people who have made incredible impact over the world. But the breed of people who especially amaze me are the ones who are able to come up with truly original ideas, theories, methodologies and explanations. Creating something from nothing is what my simple mind cannot comprehend.

How irrational are we talking? How does someone see what others can’t? How does one experience what the entire world is missing out on? Well, I do not have the answer. All I can do is wonder.

My examples mostly revolved around science. Do you have any examples of highly original work in other fields? Maybe music or art or cooking or fashion? If yes, share by replying to this email or comment them on the website.

I’ll catch you next week!
Aachman