Famous Quotes 26

“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.”

~ John Wooden

I love this advice; however, I have found it very difficult to follow throughout my life because it has not afforded me many opportunities to make friends. Now, I have people in my life whom I hold dear, but arguing with them is not one of our pastimes. Even though this style of living has brought me loneliness at times, I still search for people to stretch my mind, to push my limits, to challenge my views, because without these one falls into a world of complacency and blind acceptance, and in my mind, there is nothing worse.

This quotation also reminds me of an episode, or season per say, of my favorite television show of all-time, House M.D., when House tests a group of doctors for the three positions left vacant by his previous three doctors. Near the end of the season, House learns one of the most successful of these new doctors actually has never attended medical school or received formal medical training (completely self-taught and naturally intelligent). When he confronts this doctor, he tells him he is not releasing him from his program because of his lack of formal training and education, but because on every case they shared together throughout the program, this novice doctor came to the same conclusions as House every step of the way on every case, every diagnosis the same. He did not “agree” with House’s diagnoses, his brain actually worked out the same ones as House, and this is what House found to be detrimental to his practice. House needed someone to bounce ideas off of, to argue with him, to throw random ideas in the air…he did not need someone to come to the same conclusions he did with the same information.