How to Think More Effectively by The School of Life

Author:The School of Life
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The School of Life

Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou, illustration from the 1870 edition of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. ‘Wouldn’t glass shatter at that pressure?’ We should keep certain questions at bay for long enough to shape a vision.

When writing the story, Verne was not overly concerned with the technicalities of undersea exploration; he was more intent on describing the capabilities he felt such a craft would need. He described the Nautilus as being equipped with a huge window even though he had no idea how to make glass that could withstand immense barometric pressures. He imagined the vessel having a machine that could make seawater drinkable, even though the science of removing the salt from seawater had at the time hardly advanced. And he powered the Nautilus with batteries, even though this technology was in its infancy.

Jules Verne wasn’t an enemy of technology; he was deeply fascinated by practical problems. But in writing his novels, he held off from worrying too much about the details to the ‘how’ questions. He wanted to create a vision of the way things could be, while warding off – for a time – the many practical issues that would one day have to be addressed. Verne was thereby able conjure the idea of the submarine into the minds of his readers decades before the technology emerged that would allow the reality to take hold. Eventually, we always need to work out answers to ‘how’ questions, but ‘mad’ thinking reminds us of the significance, dignity and legitimacy of starting with our intentions.

In his earlier story of 1865, From the Earth to the Moon, Verne had explored the notion of orbiting and then landing on the moon. He let himself imagine such a feat without getting embarrassed that it was entirely beyond the reach of all available technology.

Henri de Montaut, illustration for the 1865 edition of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. A concept could become real in part because it had first been imagined.

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