# What kind of achievements were accomplished without the person realizing its difficulty/importance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514 "2013-07-14T23:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/21 "2013-07-15T20:14:12Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I doubt that Columbus realized the impact of The New World. He couldn’t have. Even though he made 4 trips, he still died believing that he had visited some lesser known parts of Asia because he was a crackpot but a very lucky one. He thought the Earth was much smaller than most other knowledgeable people believed at the time. He found land right where he thought Asia was supposed to be only he never realized it was a whole new land. I think this is a good example for the OP as well. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/22 "2013-07-15T20:47:51Z")
The Chinese invented gunpowder, but it was centuries before anyone figued how to use it to buiild effective weapons. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/23 "2013-07-15T21:36:21Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > How is that not realizing? > > If Burke had told them “What you are seeing must be this microwave background stuff Peebles has been talking about,” then he would have been doing the realizing, and he would have deserved to be a co-author and have a share in the Nobel, but that isn’t what your quote says happened. It says he mentioned Peebles’ work to them, and they made the connection. They didn’t set out with the goal of finding the background radiation, or that the had when they were done. Someone had to tell them. I guess you are interpreting the OP to mean never realized in their lifetime, I just didn’t read it that way. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/24 "2013-07-16T15:56:15Z")
Forty years ago, it was very easy to find a 19-year-old girl willing to sleep with me. I now realize that in general, it’s pretty difficult. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/25 "2013-07-16T16:20:44Z")
Something like this happened to me in my CS prof days. I had a small solution to a problem which handled sort of a worst case scenario. A grad student was testing out a proof system and wanted to use my solution. But it was “too complicated” (hah!) and asked if I could simplify it. So I took out stuff and cut it down. Didn’t solve as complex a problem, but did solve the minimal version. I stood back and realized it was far simpler than the textbook version. So I wrote it up in a short paper and sent it off to a minor journal. Really didn’t think much of it at the time. And that made be sort of famous in the field. Tens of thousands of citations, a Wikipedia page devoted to it, now it’s the standard textbook version, etc. ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/26 "2013-07-17T01:53:20Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Something like this happened to me in my CS prof days. > > I had a small solution to a problem which handled sort of a worst case scenario. A grad student was testing out a proof system and wanted to use my solution. But it was “too complicated” (hah!) and asked if I could simplify it. So I took out stuff and cut it down. Didn’t solve as complex a problem, but did solve the minimal version. > > I stood back and realized it was far simpler than the textbook version. So I wrote it up in a short paper and sent it off to a minor journal. Really didn’t think much of it at the time. > > And that made be sort of famous in the field. Tens of thousands of citations, a Wikipedia page devoted to it, now it’s the standard textbook version, etc. Could you give a link please? Just to satisfy my curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/27 "2013-07-17T16:55:28Z")
Steam engines date back nearly 2000 years. The first ones were basically just “toys” for the rich/nobles. [![](https://i.imgur.com/zP75JCK.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/zP75JCK.jpg) Put water in sphere, light fire underneath, watch it spin, clap. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/28 "2013-07-17T19:03:25Z")
A kind of opposite - as it turned out, the ancients may have discovered electricity. However, the knowledge did not spread … allegedly, because they used it for, of all things, counterfiting (via electroplating); or perhaps by electrifying idols. Naturally, they kept this secret. The Bagdad Battery: > **[BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Riddle of 'Baghdad's batteries'](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2804257.stm)** > > The very first batteries could have been invented in Iraq but, like many important archaeological artefacts, they are now at risk from the potential war. Much of this is speculative. The artifacts exist but not everyone believes they were really “batteries”. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/29 "2013-07-17T23:17:03Z")
Gregor Mendel ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/30 "2013-07-18T02:43:35Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > The artifacts exist but not everyone believes they were really “batteries”. Yeah, I’m not convinced they were actually used as batteries. Sure, they’ve got all of the right materials to make a (weak) battery, but the right materials in this case are just two different types of metal and a container. It’s way too easy to end up with exactly the same combination of stuff by accident. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/31 "2013-07-18T03:03:28Z")
It doesn’t quite fit, but in SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA Lynne Cox writes about being surprised at how well she was tolerating the cold during her historic swim – and how she only learned later that it was because of nerve damage she’d sustained during her testing-the-icy-waters swim two days earlier. _“I wasn’t aware that my first line of defense was gone,”_ she writes, adding that she also didn’t know she was risking permanent muscle damage. _“It was a good thing I didn’t know any of this.”_ ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/32 "2013-07-18T03:20:20Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > There’s actually a very good reason why Fleming never did anything much with Penicillin - it was an absolute bitch to work with. Its eventual commercialisation required a lab-full of scientists of various specialities, four years, and the motivation of WWII and battlefields full of soldiers who could really REALLY use something better than sulfanilamides. Fleming, all by himself, just didn’t have the skill set. > > I nominate Columbus’ discovery of America. Suer, he was trying to do something difficult and important at the time, it was just a different difficult and important thing than the one he ended up doing. Sulfanilamide was considered to be a waste product of the German dye industry until someone decided to see if it had antibacterial properties, because its precursor, Prontosil, dyed natural fibers without a mordant. The discoverers of Viagra didn’t get a Nobel prize because they figured out how to make old men have boners. 😛 It’s because they discovered, or at least expanded upon knowledge of, the nitric oxide cycle, which is still poorly understood but is believed to play a huge role in the overall aging process. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/33 "2013-07-18T03:22:29Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > It doesn’t quite fit, but in SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA Lynne Cox writes about being surprised at how well she was tolerating the cold during her historic swim – and how she only learned later that it was because of nerve damage she’d sustained during her testing-the-icy-waters swim two days earlier. _“I wasn’t aware that my first line of defense was gone,”_ she writes, adding that she also didn’t know she was risking permanent muscle damage. _“It was a good thing I didn’t know any of this.”_ I have that book. Guess I should actually read it. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/34 "2013-07-18T03:46:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > [Cliff Young](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_(athlete)) didn’t seem to think that winning a marathon against runners less than half his age would be anything more than chasing after sheep for endless hours as he’d been doing all his life. I had never heard of this. I do not think Ive ever had a ‘hero’ but I think this guy is my hero now. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/35 "2013-07-18T04:24:05Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > There’s actually a very good reason why Fleming never did anything much with Penicillin - it was an absolute bitch to work with. Its eventual commercialisation required a lab-full of scientists of various specialities, four years, and the motivation of WWII and battlefields full of soldiers who could really REALLY use something better than sulfanilamides. Fleming, all by himself, just didn’t have the skill set. Yep, it’s a bit of a quirk of history that Fleming came to be associated with this discovery at all. He wasn’t involved in the development of penicillin (which as you note was incredibly difficult), and he wasn’t even the first scientist to observe, or publish, the antibiotic activity of penicillium. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/36 "2013-07-18T04:30:48Z")
Missed edit window: I meant _credited_ rather than associated. Of course Fleming should be _associated_ with the discovery/development of penicillin. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/37 "2013-07-18T04:41:16Z")
I’ll take this opportunity to plug [The Mould in Dr Florey’s Coat](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/may/02/scienceandnature.highereducation1) - fascinating book about the development of penicillin during WWII. The title comes from ways the researchers dreamed up to smuggle out their work if the Nazis had invaded while they were still going… ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/38 "2013-07-18T05:09:56Z")
> [@bleach](#): > > Gregor Mendel He was accomplished by God (just a guess) without Him realizing its importance? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/39 "2013-07-18T10:54:48Z")
[Henrietta Lacks](http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/) She died without realizing the cancer that killed her produced the cell line used (50 years later) for a large portion of our disease research. Partial quote from the article about her: _She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance._ ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514/40 "2013-07-18T14:51:27Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Yeah, I’m not convinced they were actually used as batteries. Sure, they’ve got all of the right materials to make a (weak) battery, but the right materials in this case are just two different types of metal and a container. It’s way too easy to end up with exactly the same combination of stuff by accident. Certainly. I have doubts myself. One point in favour of the battery explaination is that several similar artifacts have been found. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-achievements-were-accomplished-without-the-person-realizing-its-difficulty-importance/663514.md?page=3)