I came across a note in my diary from around fifteen years ago. It was (I assume) after receiving a grant rejection. For once, I sort of agreed with the funder’s decision1. I wrote:
My grant was trivial, at least in one sense. Neils Bohr always said (or words to the effect) that the job of science was to reduce the profound to the trivial. The ‘magical’ would be made the ordinary of the everyday. My problem was that I started with the trivial.
As for the merits of review: It’s the exception that proves the rule.
- Bert Vogelstein, who I collaborated with briefly in the 1990s, after seeing our paper initially rejected by the glossy of the day , informed me that the only sensible personal strategy was to believe that reviewers are always wrong. ↩