Some people risk their lives in briefs act of heroism. They pull a fellow soldier to safety during a gunfight, or land a plane in the Hudson after it loses both engines, or chase down the guy who stole an old lady’s purse. Really admirable shit. When we hear about these kinds of things, we immediately think about whether we could have or would have done the same thing. If we think maybe we couldn’t have, we give these guys medals and parades.
Some people spend their entire lives chasing down ideas that they hope will work or building things they think will be useful. These things aren’t heroic in the same obvious way as charging into a burning building to save a kid. But spending your life figuring out how to feed a couple billion people, or risking your career to try to find proof of life elsewhere in the universe, or giving up a hedge-fund salary to educate the world for free, is pretty fucking heroic. Ironically, when we think about these sorts of accomplishments, we don’t think about whether we could have done the same thing. Most of us couldn’t even imagine where to start or how to develop the necessary skills. Most of these guys don’t get medals or parades. But, the slow heroes are as, if not more, important to society than the flashy ones.
.