“But what can be the attraction of getting to know such a tiny section of nature thoroughly, while one leaves everything subtler and more complex shyly and timidly alone?”
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Source: Principles of Research, 1918
About this quote
Specialization can become a refuge from questions that are harder to define and measure. This context-dependent challenge asks researchers to balance technical mastery with curiosity about the wider structure of nature.
When to use it
- A specialist explains how a narrow finding connects to the broader system instead of stopping at publication.
- A graduate student studies adjacent fields before deciding which variables truly matter in an experiment.
- A policy analyst looks beyond one convenient metric when the human outcome is more complicated.