Last week, I wrote in my blog entry, "What are the Important Lessons Learned as an Engineer?", about an idea shared with me in college that became a valuable part of my professional life. I appreciate all who added to that discussion and I now want to add another idea. This time, however, the idea has perplexed me for years.

Early in my career when I lived in Connecticut, I befriended a plastic surgeon. When he learned that I had attended Rensselaer, the home of Professor Robert Resnick, he grinned about how much he enjoyed studying physics using Resnick & Halliday's "Physics" (1960) text, now updated as "Fundamentals of Physics". It was clear that this practitioner of advanced medical procedures was a scientist at heart.

Given the pace of change in his professional endeavors, I assumed he was on the cutting edge (no pun intended), pressing new boundaries, challenging the limits of conventional surgery. I asked my friend one evening what it took to be a good surgeon or, put another way, why he was a good surgeon? He paused briefly and answered, "I know when to stop." It was an incredibly enlightening moment for me and a discussion ensued about the importance of knowing one's limits and of boundaries.

I've thought about the truth of his statement many times since then. Truth be told, I have always pushed the boundaries in my work or, as is often heard these days, I think outside the nine dots (meaning, creatively). Robert F. Kennedy's admonition, "Some people see things as they are and ask, 'Why?', I dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'" (with thanks to George Bernard Shaw, too!), NASA's Apollo program, the rise of the information age from semiconductor technology all speak to a pioneering spirit that, I thought, was the essence of contemporary life. I am not alone as even today, my alma mater's theme is "Why not change the world"(sm).

Although my friend was raised in the same realm as I, he saw the world quite differently. He respects boundaries and the finiteness of humanity as essential to what he does and for those he serves. Countless times I have realized the wisdom of his comment. Among other thoughts, I have come to understand F. Scott Fitzgerald's salutation in "The Great Gasby", "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

But, I also know that it is in my nature to cultivate new ground; to see what I want to see as Don Quixote chose to do for the greater good; and as shared by Robert Frost, my preferred travel is on "The Road Not Taken" where "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."