I agree with you and think I definitely missed that one (the importance of
networking). I suspect that part of forming the right relationships involves
being in the right place at the right time (and luck) - but there is more to it
than that. All of the people I've seen who are succesful academics, and
perhaps well known or famous inside their small community, are tremendously
good at networking, making contacts, etc.
Also it occurs to me that from some perspectives higher 'quality of an action'
is almost antithetical to fame. This is a fairly vague statement, but reading,
say, 'zen and the art of archery' (which I did last week), particularly some of
the initial comments about why the author wrote the book, might help explain
what I am getting at. Quality is a very internal thing from that perspective.
But probably thousands of works have been written on 'quality', so enough
rambling from someone who knows very little about the concept. I shall
continue to think about it, though.
-Kyle R
On Fri, Oct 26, 2001 at 02:05:16PM -0700, Ed Hall wrote:
quoted 16 lines Kyle Rawlins <rawlins@cs.umass.edu> wrote:
> Kyle Rawlins <rawlins@cs.umass.edu> wrote:
>
> There is some truth, here, but I think that the main quality which makes
> people famous is the ability to form (and perhaps to exploit) the right
> relationships. That's pretty much it. Talent (at least enough to sustain
> celebrity) is abundant. The folks who "make it" are the ones who sell
> themselves the best, acquire the support of others who help sell them
> further, and so on. The ultimate "sale" is then made to the public...
>
> This is why there isn't a one-to-one relationship between "quality of an
> action" and fame. And it's why fame doesn't have much bearing on this
> discussion, and the challenge "If you really could do all you claim, why
> aren't you fuckers famous?" is irrelevent, at best (which I think was
> your point).
>
> -Ed
--
http://mas.cs.umass.edu/~rawlins
--
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
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