Today’s seven lessons learned are from Werner Heisenberg (1901 – 1976), a Nobel Prize winner in 1932 for his work in matrix mechanics (quantum mechanics). The intent of the seven lessons learned is to build your general knowledge so that you have a diversity of information to draw on when you are brainstorming or problem solving.
7 Lessons from Werner Heisenberg
- Build on the work of others. Before you start a new project, find out what’s been done before. Heisenberg perfected Niels Bohr’s (Heisenberg did research with Niels Bohr) quantum theory, which only worked in some situations. “Three areas of research indicated that this theory was inadequate and would need to be replaced. These areas included the study of light emitted and absorbed by atoms (spectroscopy); the predicted properties of atoms and molecules; and the nature of light itself–did it act like waves or like a stream of particles?”
- If you are unsure of something run the idea by a mentor or trusted advisor for feedback. Heisenberg worked on finding the new quantum mechanics and found the answer, but his solution was very unusual and unfamiliar. Heisenberg wasn’t sure his solution made sense so he asked his mentor Max Born, also a physicist whom he had studied under, to review his findings.
- Find time for your hobbies even if you think you’re too busy. Heisenberg was an accomplished pianist and spent time indulging in his hobby, classical music.
- Would you stand up for what you believe in? Heisenberg remained in Germany when Hitler came to power, and they forced he and his team to develop an atomic bomb. The team didn’t deliver on time, but Heisenberg declared that, had it been necessary, he would have sabotaged the project to slow the team’s progress. What are your thoughts? How do you view Werner Heisenberg?
- Do not stick to the status quo, create a new solution. The debate raged on whether or not electrons and “other atomic phenomena behaved in a wave or particle-like fashion…. Heisenberg proposed that the only important factor was being able to mathematically predict the occurrence of atomic features.”
- What’s your legacy? What do you want to be known for? Where can you carve out a niche? One of the things that Heisenberg is known for is The Uncertainty Principle, which tells us that it’s impossible to measure the exact position and momentum of a particle at the same time. Einstein objected to this.
- You are never too young, or too old to achieve greatness. Heisenberg developed his matrix mechanics along with Max Born and Pascual Jordan when he was 23 years old, and his Uncertainty Principle when he was between 25 and 26 years old.
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How can you apply these seven lessons? Let's keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Sources Referenced
Nobel Lectures, Biography of Werner Heisenberg, Physics 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965
American Institute of Physics , http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p07.htm
Quantum Leaps: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World, John Balchin
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg
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YouTube Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/user/Acorvettes
