Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.
- Some content and links have been removed.
Truffle hunters need to keep perspective, so do parachutists
“All historians are either truffle hunters, their noses buried in the details, or parachutists, hanging high in the air and looking for general patterns in the countryside far below them.” - Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
The best solution? Being able to exercise Fluid Thinking and fly around the Levels of Magnification.
Bob Bain mentioned this quote along with the passage:
academic tribalism rarely encourages boundary crossing. each then within own field , with some exceptions, forces a “short-term” narrow focus for both research and study. Zooming in, of course, is important, but then so is zooming out to see larger patterns, connections, and if one zooms out far enough, you can peer into what neighboring or even distant “tribe” is doing. One of my favorite quotes comes from Ladurie (French historian) who talked about the virtues of being a parachutist and a truffle hunter — to that I’d add being a time lord, like Dr. Who (I’m with you Steen Comer about science fiction’s role).
- Back Matter
- dates:: 2020-06-16
- created: 2020-06-16