Two separate events this morning have caused me to consider the subject. I was involved in a weekend dialogue with a friend – which is to say, a recreational conversation – about Thomas Pynchon, Richard Fariña, and William Burroughs. The first two came upon the literary scene out of an original background in engineering and the sciences, which in the case of Pynchon at least is evident in the novels that ensued. The third on the list, although not an engineer, devoted much of his art to the subject of scientific experimentation, human physiology, the biological brain, and even the technical breakdown of whatever it is that we refer to as a soul. What these three literary examples have in common is a synthesis between the poetic and the scientific, which enriches and even redefines the two disciplines that more often than not are assumed to be separate and impossible (if not inappropriate) to combine.
The second incident of the morning, purely coincidental, was reading this new blog post by Fred Wilson, dealing with the effectiveness of a qualitative versus quantitative emphasis in the presentation of new entrepreneurial ventures. A case is made for the greater effectiveness of qualitative presentation, and this is undoubtedly true for venture capital. I wonder, though, if the more complete, the more lasting, more substantive product, whether the topic is a new technology or a macro-economic trend, combines elements of the qualitative and quantitative in balance. Although numbers (and science) cannot explain everything, these can shed light and add depth to subjects that narrative (and art) can only deal with on a superficial level. Similarly, taken in isolation, numbers (and science) present us with a purely academic perspective that may in fact be false in a realistic setting – in a world that includes all manner of raw material: history, personality, circumstance.
I am reminded, as these thoughts take shape, of luminary names in our civilization – from Aristotle to DaVinci to Einstein to Wittgenstein – whose contributions to human progress were not only enhanced, but based precisely on, their mastery of the arts and the sciences in balance. These names are only a sample that immediately comes to mind, some of the most obvious perhaps because of the invention and discovery by which they are remembered. But even in matters less scientific – and even in artistic achievement – many of the names that have earned classic status, a few of which were referenced above and many others from Rabelais to Balzac to Dreiser, incorporated science, (and spent much time researching the subject), into their output.
The reason that entrepreneurs and others should care about such musings today, outside of theoretical weekend babble, is that (arguably) the most successful serial entrepreneur of our time has demonstrated a mastery of both art and science, and serves as a model very much worth emulating. His latest creation, the iPad, is on everyone’s mind.
