# Is This a Good Book for Me, Now? - maryrosecook.com Synced: [[2023_11_30]] 6:03 AM Last Highlighted: [[2023_08_18]] Tags: [[PKM]]  ## Highlights [[2023_08_18]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h83h0xzera160avtx3dgntjr) [[career growth]] [[advice]] > I had been eating for some years with the Physics table at the Bell Telephone Laboratories restaurant…Fame, promotion and hiring by other companies ruined the average quality of the people so I shifted to the Chemistry table in another corner of the restaurant. I began by asking what the important problems were in chemistry, then later what important problems they were working on, and finally one day said, “If what you are working on is not important and not likely to lead to important things, then why are you working on it?” After that, I was not welcome and had to shift to eating with the Engineers. [[2023_08_18]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h83h5n3nchyn10hr5yvdq73c) > If I read it at the moment, I’d retain and adopt a lot less of it than if I were to wait for when I can apply it.