Birds and frogs

In a splendid essay, late physicist Dyson Freeman wrote on the difference between birds and frogs in mathematics and physics. Birds are the people who have the overview soaring high in the sky and integrate the knowledge of the frogs, who are down in the mud, working out the nitty gritty. I am definitely a bird. I happily stay up until 3AM writing up grand theories and thinking about the bigger picture in science and life, but will make a typo while executing the idea, slowing down the process. The analogy is inaccurate, because in nature birds eat frogs. In science and engineering, birds and frogs should work together in a mutualist symbiotic relationship: one can't live without the other. Teams should be designed to have a good share of both (probably more frogs) and people should understand the mutual benefit they enjoy.

Check out this great related TED talk.