I was reading the latest issue of Symmetry Magazine when an article caught my eye. This is a publication that presents news from Physics in layman’s language, written by SLAC National Lab (where I spent 25 years) and its sister lab Fermilab. In the article, the former director of communications at CERN reminisced about the challenges of explaining the science that they do, especially in the face of public misconceptions.
Most of you will probably finish that headline in your head with the toothless warning from banks and brokerages: “Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.” So too with authors. We often pick up books by authors we’ve liked in the past, only to be disappointed. Or sometimes, surprised.