How Isaac Newton Changed the World

By Shlomo Maital   

       James Gleick’s 2007 biography of Isaac Newton is a masterpiece.  Not only does Gleick document the life and innovations of Newton, he provides a clear explanation of the physics Newton pioneered, in understanding momentum, force, velocity, light, color, gravity, tides – and many other phenomenon – all, by a person born into poverty, orphaned by his father at an early age, rejected by his remarried mother, and who never married or even had a single girlfriend. 

        What was Newton’s secret?   He saw things others did not, and constantly experimented, using crude devices that he improved – for example, a telescope based not on refracting lenses but on a highly polished mirror (precisely what is done today – a billion or trillion times more complex and costly).  

           Newton had a method that each of us can use in our daily life.  I do, often.

            Here is how it works.  According to Newton’s own diary.

            He ponders a problem that deeply interests him.  He thinks about it sufficiently to let it sink deep into his brain – to signal his brain that he wants to crack it.  Then he sets it aside, using the mantra used by Napa Valley vinier Robert Mondavi “we shall sell no wine before its time”…   translated to,  “we shall broach no solution (to the problem) before its time”.  

              Begin by, say, making a tentative decision.  Think about it.  Then, file it.  Set it aside.  Do not act on it at once.   Let it age, like wine.  Do not ‘sell it’ before its time.  After a time, take it out of short term memory and bring it into focus.  Ask yourself, your brain,  how does this feel?  Imagine you are implementing the decision.  How does it feel? Does it feel right?  Or, somehow – not quite right?   Your brain will tell you.  Note – this is not based on mathematics or statistics or risk evaluation.  It is based on what your deep recesses of your brain are telling you – at an emotional level, at an intuiative level. 

                   If after a time, the decision feels right, then, proceed.  Implement it.

                   But if it does not feel right —    set it aside, and either reject it, or file it for future examination, once again.  Either reject outright, or offer a second chance. 

                   If it fails twice,  dump it.  Your brain will eventually do better.

                   Newton did this with many of his scientific laws.  With a keen eye, he read what other scientists claimed – mainly, Decartes in France and Robert Boyle in England – and then pondered whether what they claimed matched what he observed.  

                   This led him to frame many of his famous laws, that clashed with the conventional wisdom of the time.  He did not do this in haste, but deliberately, letting his ‘laws’ be born,  and ferment or age in his brain, until he had a deep innate sense that they were true, correct, based on what he observed.

                    All this, by a person who probably (according to Gleick) never actually saw the sea, mostly lived in his room at the University of Cambridge, travelled very little, and had few friends. 

                      So, what is the Newtonian method?   Choose a meaningful problem or decision to be made.  Think of a solution, or an action plan.  Do not implement it or publicize it.  File it away.  Extract it after a time, after it has ‘aged’.  Ponder on it.  See how it feels, as you consider implementing it.  Listen closely to your intuition, to the quiet, very quiet messages your brain sends you.  Sometimes, they are barely audible. 

                    This doesn’t have to take weeks or months.  Maybe days, or even hours.  But give your intuitive brain time to work on it,  in ways that you are not fully conscious of.

                    Isaac Newton changed the world in this manner.  We use his laws to this day.  You need not change the world – but you can make choices that you feel good about, as time passes.  

                     Daniel Kahneman wrote of his, in his book about slow and fast thinking.  There is something in between.  Fast thinking – that has a small time-delay.  That time delay can be crucial. 

                       Try it.

p.s. The story about how he discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head and bonked him? Not true. Not even close. He did contemplate falling bodies…..