Whenever I hear the word 'serendipity,' I think of my old mentor Norman Eliason, professor of medieval studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. During my years of grad work, Dr. Eliason passed along habits of precision and an eye for detail that I've tried, not always successfully, to emulate. One day when he asked about my work habits, I told him that I preferred to work outside the library, checking out books I needed or making copies of relevant journal articles. I can still see him nodding slowly in his office chair, cigarette protruding from his hand, and I knew I'd said the wrong thing. "You need to be among the books," he said. "Use your free time to look around and you'll run into things in the stacks you never knew were there." I took his advice and he was right. Serendipity --chance discovery, usually when looking for something else -- worked. At least, it always has for me, but you have to put yourself in a place where discoveries are likely to be made. Image: Serendipitous discoveries...
The Pursuit of Serendipity
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