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Natalie Portman - Scientist

nytimes.com

71–80 of 177 posts

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#71
post #41

I find this articles lack of hot grits disturbing.

I know it's (barely) related to the current thread, but Queen has an astrophysicist as a lead guitarist... Face it, some people can pull this multi-discipline s*ht off.

There's also Brian Cox (there must be something in the UK water about turning out musicians/physicists):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#72
post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

> ..there often isn't much difference between someone who appears smart and someone who doesn't... Maybe they're just a fish out of water, spending too much time on things that don't interest him.

Amen!

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#73
post #58
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She has published peer reviewed research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi... (her actual name is Natalie Hershlag). One of the co-authors is Jerome Kagan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Kagan . Seems good enough to me. Certainly not a career scientist; very few would be with another venture making millions. But she has walked the walk. There's no hype here.

okay, perhaps you and i have different definitions of "scientist". anyway, i don't want to overdo this here, if you want to call her "scientist", fine. i know who she is since i saw beautiful girls and of course leon and she always stood out to me as a very, very smart person, but in my book one student co-authorship does not make one a "scientist". it's more like "very good student", "on the way" or "caught the atte…

Hero worship?

My heroes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kennedy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Powers.

People I'd place in the category of scientist based on the fact that she co-authored a paper with one of the pioneers of developmental psychology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Portman.

That's a far cry from being a hero. Please, let's be reasonable.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#74
post #53

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out another "scientist" (minor) actor not mentioned in this article: - speaks Swedish, English, Spanish, some German, some French, some Japanese, and some Italian - awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney (1982) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolph_lundgren

Man people like this make me feel so inadequate.

[deleted]

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#75
post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

> ..there often isn't much difference between someone who appears smart and someone who doesn't... Maybe they're just a fish out of water, spending too much time on things that don't interest him. Amen!

"Maybe they're just a fish out of water, spending too much time on things that don't interest him."

Doesn't sound too smart..

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#77
post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

To this day, when I see phrases like, "intellectual horsepower", I cringe. We "smarties" aren't that much smarter than most other people, if we are at all. I don't think this is true at all. People who are average intelligence or below can be very successful but have no chance of succeeding in high level intellectual pursuits. People who are smart don't understand this, because to them learning anything is just a mat…

What if the reason people are 'smart' is because of the way their brain has organized itself over the years in response to learning so much? Then it isn't that dumb people are dumb, just behind.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#78

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out another "scientist" (minor) actor not mentioned in this article: - speaks Swedish, English, Spanish, some German, some French, some Japanese, and some Italian - awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney (1982) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolph_lundgren

Kind of ironic to be so gifted in so many areas, and yet be famous for something you're not even good at.

One bad movie pays more than a year in the lab.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#79
I like Natalie. I can't help but wonder, genuinely, if some of her academic success was influenced by her star stature. I've seen evidence that she is indeed quite bright. On the other hand, how many profs are going to give Natalie Portman a B?

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#80

James Franco is very impressive as well. From his Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Franco#Personal_life : Franco has been described as having "an unusually high metabolism for productivity...a superhuman ability to focus". Dissatisfied with his career's direction, Franco reenrolled at UCLA in the fall of 2006 as an English major with a creative writing concentration. Having received permission to tak…

Franco is obviously extremely productive and very bright, but I can't help but focus on the fact that he has a full+ time personal assistant. She's up 18 hours a day with him handing the "details" of his life, so he's free to focus on whatever he wants to focus on. Sometimes I wonder what kind of difference that would make in my life, particularly when I was in grad school. And then I tell myself to shut up and get b…

So... why not make it happen? Perhaps not all of it can be done, but Tim Ferriss talks about having an outsourced personal assistant.

If you are the type who could work all those extra hours, try outsourcing as many activities as possible. Start with housekeeping services, as an example, and perhaps a personal cook.

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