Stephen Hawking — "It is a matter of common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit i…"
It is a matter of common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
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More from Stephen Hawking
"The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead."
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About Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
British theoretical physicist whose Hawking radiation work and A Brief History of Time (1988) brought black-hole physics to a mass audience while he lived with ALS for 55 years. Closely associated with Roger Penrose (his collaborator on singularity theorems) and Carl Sagan (fellow popularizer who wrote Brief History's foreword). For an intellectual contrast, see William Lane Craig, American philosopher of religion — Craig's Kalam cosmological argument depends on the Big Bang requiring a divine first cause; Hawking's no-boundary proposal was specifically designed to remove the moment that would require one — the cleanest cosmology-vs-natural-theology contrast in modern thought.
Details
Often attributed, but originally by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hawking used it in a context of scientific exploration.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Pragmatic experimentation beats paralysis by analysis. Choose an approach, test it in reality, and if it fails, say so plainly without ego — then pivot and try something different. The essential point is that inaction is the only true failure. Progress emerges through iterative attempts and candid self-assessment. Momentum and honest evaluation matter more than waiting for a perfect, guaranteed solution before acting.
Relevance to Stephen Hawking
Hawking's scientific career was built on bold hypotheses tested against reality. His 1974 Hawking radiation proposal overturned classical black hole theory — a claim he spent decades defending and refining. In 2004 he publicly conceded his famous black hole information-loss bet to Kip Thorne, modeling intellectual honesty. Living with ALS from age 21, he continuously adapted his research methods and communication tools, embodying persistent, pragmatic experimentation against extraordinary constraints.
The era
Hawking worked across the 1960s through 2010s, when physics faced its deepest theoretical deadlock: general relativity and quantum mechanics remained fundamentally incompatible. String theory promised unification but generated fierce debate and sparse evidence. Cosmology was being reshaped by discoveries of dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic inflation — each a bold experimental guess requiring frank revision. Science demanded exactly this philosophy: attempt something, assess honestly, and try again when the model breaks.
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