Or the hard work of it.

Favorite teachers tend to say things that you like to quote. That being the case, it's perhaps a bit strange that in the past I've referred here only three times (one, two and three) to a favorite teacher of mine, Moshe Caspi. Certainly three, and now four, times is a form of acknowledging his influence, but why so few?

Regardless of the frequency with which I quote him, it's hard not to think about Caspi when dealing with serendipity. He often emphasized that serendipity was a wonderful thing, but though it wasn't the sort of thing you could actively seek, in order for it to hit you, you've got to be prepared for it. Knowing Moshe, I'm sure that he not only phased this thought better than I'm doing here, but that he also saw it as a cornerstone of his educational philosophy. I don't know whether he was aware of Louis Pasteur's phrasing (also quoted in these pages) of the same thought:

Chance favors the prepared mind.

which considerably pre-dated him. But I trust he was as prepared to learn from Pasteur as he was to learn from any other source.

Go to: Now what are the odds on that happening?