Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Think on These Things: Santiago Ramón y Cajal

I was just back in my native Córdoba, Argentina, at my home on Calle Santiago Ramon y Cajal, named after the 1906 Nobel Prize winning Spanish physician and neuroscientist. The Nobel biography page on Dr. Ramón y Cajal can be found here.

My visit home made me reflect on his book Reglas y Consejos Sobre Investigación Científica, published in 1898, wherein he summarizes his observations and perspectives on medicine and scientific investigation. 

"Discovery is not necessarily a function of special talent, but a function of hard work, which creates talent, and, low achievement is less commonly from a lack of time and resources, it is more from a lack of willpower."

From what I have observed in colleagues, including excuses, bad time management, poor choices and lack of discipline, these observations fully ring true today.