Serendipity

Serendip + -ity. Coined by Horace Walpole, 1754. Serendip is an old Persian name for Sri Lanka.

* 1754 Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 2, Letter 90, To Sir Horace Mann, Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1754.[1]

" This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called "The Three Princes of Serendip;" as their Highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right--now do you understand Serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental Sagacity, (for you must observe that no discovery of a thing you are looking for comes under this description,) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who, happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table. "

Most of my knowledge is gained in the above fashion. I don't intend to learn things, I tend to absorb them without thinking about it. This both impressed and frustrated my teachers through my school years. After all, they thought they were in charge of my learning. They had no more control over it than I did. We both failed at the task more often than not anyway. But I managed to graduate from high school anyway.

The best example of serendipity is something we call Post-It notes.

http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/pastpresent/history_ws.html

Dr. Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist, discovered the formula for the sticky stuff back in 1968. But it was Silver's colleague, Art Fry, who finally came up with a practical use for it. The idea for repositionable notes struck Fry while singing in the church choir. His bookmark kept falling out of his hymnal, causing him to lose his page. So, taking advantage of a 3M policy known as the "bootlegging" policy, Fry used a portion of his working hours to develop a solution to his problem. Now the world is singing the praises of his pet project: Post-it® Notes.

Another way of expressing just what serendipity is to say it is when you find something of value while seeking something else.

Or picking up the odd knowledge we gather from blogs.


[1175/1176/1045]