Role Models

Doc Brown, the "crazy wild-eyed scientist" who was driven by imagination and vision, was willing to risk his own life in the name of exploration. Though he claims to be a scientist, Doc Brown might lack the control or restraint necessary to get the job done -- this is a man who spent thirty years building three pulsing neon tube lights -- but it's the imagination part that's worth remembering.

Examples:

• Every engineer in the Apollo program.
• Leonardo da Vinci.
• Discount rocketry pioneer Bob Truax.

Doctor No is the model of the scientist who takes care with every step, for the sake of every unknown, unintended consequence. Everything needs to be explored before it could be considered for The Book; the best science is the kind that could only be overturned by unexpected new evidence, but where the possibility is at least taken into account in the margins.

Examples:

• Physicist Arthur Eddington, who once said that no experiment should be trusted until confirmed by theory.
  
• Late statistics professor David Freedman (at least by reputation).
  

(Thanks to the language being what it is, this is not what's meant by "conservative scientist".)

Put the two together, and you get the combination: crazy imagination to look forward to new ideas, and the grit to follow it through -- while having the perspecuity to put aside those notions that just didn't work. It might be a tough vision to live up to, but I think it's a worthy one.

So I ask; who are your crazy heroes you cobble together into an ideal career role model?