🚀 go-pugleaf

The causal link between fame and success/productivity goes both ways, kind
of like the old proverb that money begets money, or it takes money to make
money.  Brilliance alone is certainly not enough-  I recall a writer for the
Mensa bulletin saying that Mensa is a club for people who "know they are smart
but feel like they are stupid."  Brilliant people need a little luck and a lot
of hard work to turn their brains into success and fame.  A little success and
fame are rewarded with a better environment (institution, labspace, funding) in
which to use your brains and hard work, etc., and the cycle goes on.  Do people
publishing in "Cell" only come from big institutions?  My mentor is fond of
talking about whether or not certain people are a part of "the club" (he is
not).  Is it more of a part of the cylce?  Brilliant people ambitious enough
to be successful and famous are likely to set high goals for themselves, among
them the desire to be at a top institution, and likely to find their way into
"the club" that lets them publish in Cell.  To wit, who at Cell (or Nature,
Science, PNAS) is going to turn down Ken Culver's next paper on gene therapy?
Remember that they also have to compete with eachother for fame and success
in the publishing world.

Remarks concerning Gallo...
While he may have abused his "connections" regarding the HIV controversy, there
is no question concerning his previous achievements in retrovirology as a
whole, so I would be slow to count him as an example that connections alone can
lead you to fame and success.

Dean Lee  6/8or9
mbidle@lluvm.bitnet
Loma Linda University