Persephone wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:20:27 -0800, "SteveB" toquerville@zionvistas
wrote:


[...]
"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere
critic-the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and
imperfectly,
not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done."
Theodore Roosevelt 1891

Like many .sigs, this may SOUND good, but is actually simplistic.

Where did TR think that "man who actually does the work" got his
ideas? In most cases, from the "man who [only] talks or writes about
how it ought to be done.

Not to denigrate the classic innovative "Yankee" tinkerer; the man
on the job has often found the jig, or fix to make it work, where
management was too far removed from the project.

But TR's blustering statement throws out in one fell swoop the
whole of theory.

The theorist who appears to be staring out the window for hours
or days on end is the one who was thinking out of the box -- the one
who changed history.

I suspect TR may have been talking about an idle or unproductive
critic, but his statement was poorly worded in that it appeared to
indict the "revolutionary" theorist. Did TR ever think about how the
theory of the speed of light, e.g. came to Einstein -- as a "thought
experiment". Volumes of other examples exist.

A little humility, please, TR!

Persephone

Thank you for proving my point.

Now, do you actually have ANYTHING to say about the question?

Steve