Michael Faraday — "Work, finish, publish."
Work, finish, publish.
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More from Michael Faraday
"The important thing is to know how to take a hint, to seize upon the suggestion, however small, and to extract its full value."
"But still try, for who knows what is possible?"
"I have often been accused of being a dreamer, but I have found that dreams can become reality."
"The more we know of the laws of nature, the more we are led to believe in the wisdom, intelligence, and design of God."
"All this is a dream. Still, examine it by a few experiments."
Details
A personal motto or advice he gave to young scientists.
Date: Mid 19th Century (approx.)
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Understanding this quote
What it means
A three-step rule for getting anything done: actually do the work, see it through to completion, and then share the result with the world. Too many people start projects and abandon them, or finish privately without making their findings known. The instruction cuts out excuses and perfectionism. You owe something to the wider community only when you push your completed work out the door where others can use, test, or build on it.
Relevance to Michael Faraday
Faraday lived this literally. Largely self-taught, he bound his own notebooks as a bookbinder's apprentice and kept a rigorous lab diary with over 16,000 numbered entries. He published the Experimental Researches in Electricity across decades of Royal Society papers, turning findings on induction, electrolysis, and field lines into public record rather than hoarded notes. The discipline of closing each inquiry and putting it in print is exactly how an outsider became the nineteenth century's defining experimentalist.
The era
In the early-to-mid 1800s, science was shifting from gentleman-amateur correspondence to a professional discipline organized around journals, learned societies, and priority disputes. The Royal Institution lectures, the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, and new specialist periodicals meant reputations were built by published record. With Ampere, Ohm, and Maxwell working the same territory, a result existed only once it was dated in print, so finishing and publishing were how discoveries became yours.
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