When someone else retires, he changes careers – the two most important factors for success.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “people and gods together” (ID :tongyipaocha), the author and the gods work together.
Physicist who transferred to research chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has always lacked a sense of existence, or that chemistry is relatively lacking in the scientific community. For example, Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, has always despised chemistry, so the Nobel Prize jury finally awarded the physicist a chemistry prize – see if you can take it.
But this year’s chemistry awards are significantly higher than the physics awards. First, because the lithium battery technology of the award-winning research is more connected with the public life, it is also a hot spot in the industry, and the second is because it has refreshed the most in the history of the Nobel Prize. The record of the older winners – 97-year-old “good enough gentleman”, full name John Bannister Goodenough.
The most surprising thing is not age. This “good enough gentleman” happens to be a physicist who turns to research chemistry. What’s even more amazing is that he was 54 years old when he switched.
There was a paragraph before, saying that the reporter interviewed a centenarian and asked her what regrets. She said that when I was 70, I wanted to learn piano. As a result, some people said that it is useful to learn that, you can play a few year? I gave up…
“Good enough gentleman” is a counterexample to this paragraph. As a physicist, because the laboratory funds were withdrawn, he turned into a chemist in a rage and studied the lithium battery technology that was not optimistic at the time.
And that year, he was 54 years old. The vast majority of people at this age, considering how to support the elderly, even if the “older and more fragrant” academic research field, but also at most consider what is their next topic.
The vast majority of people change their careers because they are not doing well in the original industry. In fact, before the “good enough Mr.”, they also achieved extraordinary achievements in the field of physics. They participated in the invention of solid-state disk random access memory (RAM). Said to be “the field of solid magnetic materials research”One of the top scientists, the “Goodenough-Kanamori” rule in this field is named after his name.
So the old age of “good enough gentleman” is the result of personal interest and academic thinking.
Returning is not a rare thing, but in the 50s, it’s a bit strange to get the Nobel Prize. Why is “good enough gentleman” able to make such a big turn?
What should I learn?
First of all, can you change your career, whether you will change careers, and have a lot to do with a person’s personality, and the personality will be more or less reflected in the experience of the early years, “Good enough Mr. “The experience at Yale in the years 18-21 is a good indication of this.
He first studied literature, then transferred to philosophy of science, and later wanted to transfer to medical school. In order to make up the credits, he took the chemistry that brought him great honors in the future, but he was also able to follow the math teacher’s flicker, and because he always I feel that I have “dyslexia” and “good enough gentleman” ended my Yale career with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
This change in professional direction seems to be no flies. In fact, it is normal for a college student. Because most ordinary people don’t really know what they like, they just choose to go with them. Anyway, I don’t know what I should learn. It’s better to meet what is.
“Good enough Mr.” In the process of a large span of several areas, the boundaries of professionalism have become blurred, and things that are common to different professions are becoming clearer. Only then did he have no psychological burden and “interdisciplinary thinking”.
After the start of World War II, he was recruited. The first benefit of learning mathematics is that instead of going to the front line, it is a “wartime weather forecaster” by professional technology. During this period, he was still thinking about his professional direction. He was finally inspired by the scientific philosopher Huai Haide’s book Science and Modern World. He made up his mind to take physics as a graduation career.
After retiring, “Mr. Good enough” chose the latter in the two choices of the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Chicago. As a result, he was persuaded by the teacher when he signed up: “Don’t you know that this age physicist Have you already made a name for yourself?”
Mathematics turns to physics, maybe everyone doesn’t feel anything wrong. In fact, in various sciences,Physics is a bit of a “children’s taste”, so the 3+2 reform of the Chinese college entrance examination, physics is the most demanded by the various professions of the university, resulting in the situation that only the schoolmaster can dare to test physics.
In fact, the concept of enrolling teachers is outdated. “Good enough gentleman” is still standing firm in this field. One important reason is that he chose the physical direction of solid-state magnetic materials. This sensible choice is due to his previous research on philosophy of science, allowing him to consider the direction of personal development from the macro perspective of scientific development.
More importantly, this is a marginal discipline of physics. It quietly prepares a “back door” for a “good enough gentleman.”
In 1969, the US Congress enacted legislation prohibiting the use of military funds for civilian projects, which led to the suspension of the “good enough Mr.” research project. At this time, the University of Oxford’s inorganic chemistry laboratory on the other side of the Atlantic needed a director. The “good enough gentleman” who had only completed two chemistry courses at the undergraduate level actually won this position.
When I read this, I think everyone has the same big question as I did at the time. Why does a chemical laboratory need a physicist?
This answer is the second reason for the “old age transition.”
Two personality traits with “turning potential”
Another important reason is that whether it is the previous physical research or the subsequent chemical research, he is in the edge of innovation, just the part of the underlying principle, the application of material engineering seems to be A bridge that connects physics and chemistry.
Before Good enough, at Lincoln Laboratory, he studied magnetic materials, and then at the University of Oxford’s Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, he chose the direction of the lithium battery he had previously considered.
At this time, the lithium battery that just came out suffered a major blow, because lithium is a very active chemical element, and the first commercial products have burned and exploded after several years of use – lithium batteries need a new architecture. .
At this time, M. Stanley Wettingham, another winner of this Nobel Prize, proposed a physical movement structure based on “lithium embedding” to let lithium batteries bid farewell to dangerous “lithium conversion” Chemical reaction.
The theory is great, and the new material of “lithium embedding” can be realized.
Modern science, inventing a new material, has long been a blind experiment in the Edison era, and it needs to be based onThe physical properties of the material narrowed the scope of the study, which required the theoretical foundation of the physicist. This is why the University of Oxford’s inorganic chemistry laboratory hired “good enough Mr.”.
Sure enough, in a few years, “Good enough Mr.” took out the epoch-making invention in the history of lithium battery development – lithium cobalt oxide, a positive electrode material with very high safety factor, just perfect with the graphite negative electrode developed by Sony Collocation, has become the basic structure of lithium batteries that have been used today – whether you are reading this article with a mobile phone or a laptop, it is in your lithium battery.
This year, “Good enough Mr.” is 58 years old.
“Good enough Mr.” to explain the experience of miraculous after the transition:
“Scientific research is usually interdisciplinary, so physics, chemistry and engineering are usually involved. This is me. Providing an opportunity to truly move towards materials science and engineering. This is an opportunity to work with chemists, physicists and engineers who are truly mature and deeply inspired.”
So, not only academic research, anyone in the workplace, if you have the following two personality traits, it is easy to benefit from the transition:
1. Interested in different areas of knowledge
2, can stand at the height of the macro, from the perspective of historical development, to grasp the development of different fields
You can choose the areas of the current professional field, more innovative, more marginal, and more interdisciplinary, to prepare for future transitions.
Go back to the story of “Good enough Mr.” and still finish.
97-year-old researcher
A few days ago, I wrote “In your life, did you choose the “happiness strategy” or the “achievement strategy”?, someone asked me, is it too late to go to the “achievement strategy”? I thought that like me, I am a middle-aged uncle, but when I ask about my age, I am only 30 years old.
The problems that life considers at each stage are very different. Before the age of 30, I wanted to become famous soon, I was financially free, and I wanted to do whatever I wanted, so I liked the career of “Youth Rice”.
But after 35, you will find that work has become an indispensable part of your life, so the best job is the kind of “the older the more delicious.”
In theory, it took out the epoch-making products of lithium cobalt oxide. At this age, “good enough gentleman” can basically go to the home of Texas, while waiting for the old, while waiting for the call of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
However, in 1997, the old man once again produced a work that shocked the world – a cheaper, more stable cathode material: lithium iron phosphate. This year, “good enough gentleman” is 75 years old.
But it’s not over yet.
Today, “Good enough Mr.” is studying the more challenging solid materials at the age of 97 to completely solve the safety problems of lithium cobaltate and lithium iron phosphate.
I don’t want to give you a chicken soup. The spirit of the old gentleman is admirable, but he can keep researching. It’s also because of the huge prospects brought by the emerging features of the new energy industry, using Buffett’s “snowball” theory. This is a snowy and thick snowy road that can roll the snowballs out. It is worthwhile to pour all the most precious things in your life.
Remember before I saw someone asking, how can programmers avoid the fate of youthful meals? A very reliable suggestion is:
The most difficult areas of operating system, database, graphics intelligence, etc., these are either emerging areas with broad prospects, or they can be studied for a lifetime. Although it was very lonely at the beginning, there was no achievement. It took ten years to get started. People have mastered several languages, but once they have established a knowledge system, later people can’t catch up with you.
I wrote an article beforeThe article, the end is especially suitable for this article, today, steal a lazy and use it directly –
Heroes and young people, since ancient times, there is no good death: Xiang Yu was 24 years old, 30 years old, self-deprecating; Huo went to the hospital 19 years old, 23 years old, hung; Cao Chong 7 years old, 13 years old, early.
The late generation of the big man, longevity since ancient times: KFC grandfather is still receiving relief money at the age of 56, and the result is 90 years old; Qi Baishi is 66 years old and still rely on 34-year-old Xu Beihong to carry the name, 93 years old is not dead; Jiang Ziya 76 years old Phase, it is hard to stick to life until 139 years old (now there is another 54-year-old turn, 97-year-old Nobel Prize winner “good enough”).
Since I can’t be a teenager, I’ll fight for it.
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