Barely Imaginable
A Grizzly Reflection in a Stream of Plantigrade Platitudes
Sophia: Niels, George, I’ve been pondering the interplay of expertise, error, and the courage to take risks. Niels, you said, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” George, you observed, “I find so much writing colorless, small in its means, unwilling to take stylistic risks… Sometimes, I hope, it goes right.” How do mistakes and risk define mastery in thought and expression?
Bohr: Sophia, mastery is inseparable from failure. Only by navigating every misstep, every miscalculation, does one gain the discernment to know what works. Expertise is, in essence, a map of errors transformed into understanding.
Steiner: And I would extend that to art and literature. Many writers avoid risk, preferring safety over style. The occasional failure, the ventures into the unknown, are what generate brilliance. One cannot create vibrancy without embracing the possibility of going wrong.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
— Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
Sophia: So both science and art share a fundamental principle: risk is inseparable from insight, and error is an essential teacher. The grizzly reflection we see in the stream of ordinary platitudes is a reminder that safety rarely yields profundity.
Bohr: Indeed. A narrow field may seem limiting, but within it, one can explore every possibility — successes and failures alike. Each mistake is a stepping stone, a guidepost toward real knowledge.
Steiner: And stylistic courage mirrors that same principle. To stretch language, form, and meaning is to risk failure, but also to create resonance, depth, and surprise. Without such risks, expression becomes flat and lifeless — a stream of plantigrade platitudes, as you say, Sophia.
I find so much writing colorless, small in its means, unwilling to take stylistic risks. Often it goes wrong; I am not the one to judge. Sometimes, I hope, it goes right.
— George Steiner (1929-2020)
Sophia: Then the path to brilliance is twofold: embrace mistakes as teachers and embrace risk as a catalyst for originality. Expertise and artistry converge where caution yields to curiosity, and certainty yields to experimentation.
Bohr: The grizzly nature of reflection — rugged, sometimes intimidating — is exactly the landscape in which growth occurs. Only by confronting it can one emerge wiser.
Steiner: And the occasional triumph that emerges from risk — when it “goes right” — is all the more luminous for having passed through error. The palette of experience, both failed and successful, is what gives depth to understanding.
Sophia: So let us stride boldly into the stream, unafraid of splashes, grizzlies, or shallow platitudes. Mistakes and risks are not deterrents but the very currency of wisdom and creation.
The three gaze into a mirrored stream, seeing reflections both flawed and brilliant, aware that mastery, like art, is forged in the currents of trial, error, and daring.
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