Don’t Try To Turn Lead Into Gold
Do you think about your thinking?
“Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking”
Imagine you’re a captain of an ocean liner. Your crew is well-trained. The machinery in the hold of your ship is working perfectly. You’re an experienced sea wolf who steers the liner with a steady hand.
The only problem is your course is wrong. So, you’ll never bring your ship to its destination.
Ancient alchemists
Ancient alchemists believed all metals were composed of the same fundamental substance. But various metals, they thought, were at different stages of their ‘perfection’ towards the ideal form. And the ideal form was gold.
So, they believed they could somehow change the structure of basic metals and turn lead into gold. They called it ‘transmutation.’
Alchemists weren’t mad scientists with messy hair. Sir Isaac Newton himself was an alchemist. Roger Bacon, a medieval English philosopher, was an alchemist too.
They didn’t learn to turn lead into gold because it is im…