Help me remember a Carl Sagan quote from a recent thread!

[spazurek]

Ok, random request. In the flurry of recent threads on the new Cosmos, someone mentioned a quote from Carl Sagan to the following effect: He remembered the challenges he had to overcome in learning difficult things, which explained why he was good at popularizing science. More naturally gifted people learn with less effort and thus have a harder time conveying their understanding to a wider audience.

Hopefully someone has a clue what I’m talking about!! If you can find the quote I’ll be eternally grateful. This is gold for me (I’m a teacher and feel the same way).

Gratsi!

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

bump

[SpoilerVirgin]

It’s from the “Is Neil DeGrasse Tyson a Genius?” thread, Post 37

The adult Sagan always sounded like the smartest person in the room, but in the papers we encounter this interesting note in a 1981 file, right after “Cosmos” hit it big: “I think I’m able to explain things because understanding wasn’t entirely easy for me. Some things that the most brilliant students were able to see instantly I had to work to understand. I can remember what I had to do to figure it out. The very brilliant ones figure it out so fast they never see the mechanics of understanding.

The post also links to the source of the quote in Smithsonian Magazine.

[spazurek]

@SpoilerVirgin

It’s from the “Is Neil DeGrasse Tyson a Genius?” thread, Post 37The post also links to the source of the quote in Smithsonian Magazine.

You are brilliant!! You may have just helped me earn $1500 (I’m up for a teaching award and need to write about why I’m so amazing, which I hate…this quote is perfect!)

[Chronos]

There’s some truth in that, too. At my old university, in the introductory physics classes, every year we would invite a few of the brighter students to come back the next semester as peer instructors. Since they’d just gone through the same thing the other students were going through, they could relate better, and explain things to the students on their terms.

I’m not sure if the incentive to do this was pay, credits, or a combination of both.