Archive or interview transcript?
Archives, for sure. Leaving aside fraud, the items in them are real and can shed light on the past. Interviews have a role to play but they are essentially expressions of personal views and recollections that may well be soiled by false memories. Everyone has such memories, even Earl Spencer, I wager. By the way, few things excite me more than a misfiled gem. Sad, I know.
One brilliant equation or one brilliant sentence?
I’d go with the equation. Even truly brilliant sentence, such as John Updike’s ‘Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face’, cannot match the endlessly rewarding Dirac equation, which proved to be even smarter than its discoverer.
Procrastinator or plodder?
I’m sorry to say that I’m a plodder. I wish I were more productive.
Follow the evidence or follow the hunch?
Hard to choose, but in the end, I like to follow contemporary documentary evidence.
Dirac or Hawking?
Dirac was by far the greater theorist (as Hawking said) but Hawking was by far the more interesting human being (as Dirac believed).
Shakespeare or Newton?
Shakespeare every time. If he hadn’t lived, we wouldn’t have several of the most glorious literary masterpieces. If Newton had not lived, others would have made his discoveries.
Notebook and pencil or AI assistant?
Neither. For me, the Remarkable digital tablet is indispensable – much easier to write on than an iPad.
Theoretician or experimental?
I’m not much good at either. In my view, theorists are often over-praised compared with experimenters, at least in physics. Einstein was correct, I believe, to describe Ernest Rutherford as one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. (It’s a pity that Rutherford believed that Einstein was over-rated – poor judgement, in my view).
Workaholic or lazybones?
I’ve spent too much of my life as a part-time workaholic. I increasingly sympathise with Oscar Wilde’s view that ‘hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing better to do.’
Hawking: His Life and Work By Graham Farmelo John Murray 608pp £30
To coincide with the publication of Hawking, I will release a longer conversation with Graham tomorrow in which he admits the biography “practically broke me.”
