The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men Read Online Free Page A

a failure of imagination, and it distorted and undermined the way in which the anti-hunger community went about its work for generations. Not believing that malaria could actually be eradicated was a failure of imagination that distorted and undermined the way the malaria community went about its work, until someone leaped unreasonably over the hurdle.

IRRATIONAL CONFIDENCE: THE VISIONARY’S DILEMMA
    These two strands of belief—that good is not good enough, and that most failures are failures of imagination—when woven together, are held fast by the glue of unshakable belief in oneself. It is old-fashioned advice, this notion of believing in oneself, the stuff of commencement speeches and testimonial dinners. But in certain circumstances, continuing to believe in yourself and your calling, even against all odds, can be determinative. The bigger one’s dreams, the more tangible and important such belief becomes.

    The visionary’s dilemma is that the bigger the goal or aspiration, the bolder and more audacious the plan for attaining it, and the more skeptics and cynics there will be. The dilemma is particularly pernicious because it persists and compounds. The more the visionary pushes and pursues, the more the establishment interprets this as a sign of fundamental instability, conveniently justifying its initial opposition. Concerns about the idea are compounded by concerns about the idea’s propagator. Establishments are threatened by visionaries, especially when, as often happens, a visionary’s approach suggests that the solution has been hiding in plain sight all along, notwithstanding the phalanxes of bright people who have dedicated their entire careers to more conventional approaches.
    The status quo yields not an inch of ground without a fight. The establishment always has the advantage of money, credibility, respect, prestige, familiarity, and political support. Just as a daring quarterback’s consistent effectiveness all but invites the defensive line to blitz, the visionary has to expect the pass rush and hold his or her ground.
    So a visionary’s best defense to the dilemma is not only having a thick skin, but having reservoirs of self-confidence as well. Because when those invested in the status quo feel threatened, they chip away at not only the upstart’s ideas, but also his or her motives and character. Just as big trucks require big wheels, and tall buildings require deep foundations, people with big dreams need a large reservoir of self-confidence to maintain their balance and go forward. It
helps if friends and family can be depended upon to help fill it.
    I don’t think it’s an accident that many of the people profiled in the story of the pursuit of a malaria vaccine are directly supported by family members such as spouses and sons and daughters. The original discovery of a potential malaria vaccine in 1968 was by the husband-and-wife team of Victor and Ruth Nussenzweig, who even today, in their eighties, share a lab at New York University. Their discovery was the genesis of future work pursued by several other husband-and-wife teams, including Steve Hoffman and Kim Lee Sim in the United States, as well as Pedro Alonso and his wife Clara Menendez in Spain and Africa. Inherent in such familial couplings is a support system, a kind of anchor that helps such people weather the inevitable storms. Standing alone against the multitudes requires a degree of belief in oneself that simply surpasses the rational.

THE IMAGINATIONS OF UNREASONABLE MEN
    The three philosophical underpinnings of breakthrough thinking described above—(1) that good is not good enough, (2) that most failures are failures of imagination, and (3) that irrational self-confidence is essential—are not by themselves a solution for our toughest problems. They are not even a shortcut to such solutions. But they are the necessary architecture for solving them, the underpinnings without which most efforts will falter.
    Just look