Open and Closed Door Research.......................

Science is a very gregarious business. It is essentially the difference between having this door open and having it shut. When I'm doing science I have the door open. I mean, that is kind of symbolic, but it is true. You want to be, all the time, talking with people. Up to a point, you welcome being interrupted becuase it is only by interacting with other people that you get anything interesting done. It is essentially a communal enterprise. There are new things happening all the time, and you should keep abreast and keep youself aware of what is going on. You must be constantly talking. But ofcourse writing is different. When I am writing I have the door shut, and even then too much sound comes through, so very often when I am writing I go and hide in the library. It is a solitary game. So, I suppose that is the main difference. But then afterward, of course the feedback is very strong, and you get a tremendous enrichment of contacts as result. Lots and lots of people write me letters simply because I have written boooks which address a general public, so I get into touch with a much wider circle of friends. It's broadened my horizons very much. But that is only after the writing is finished and not while it is going on...............Physicist Freeman Dyson, Creativity Page 66