Empathy is Not Rocket Science

So one of the stories is that everywhere you turn, every corner you turn to, there's something Goddard this or Goddard that.

And Goddard Hall and Goddard, there used to be an institution called the Goddard Institution.

And we all knew it had something to do with a rocket ship.

in Worcester, some guy named Robert Goddard in a rocket ship, but this is just my child brain, right? Like, I don't know.

It's like something about rocket ship and this guy's famous, but I don't know how famous he is.

I never really showed up or paid attention to that part of history until today, until today, because today I started to look up what the proper way is to kind of publish on your podcast, what a true retraction would be, what a true correction would be, because I had it wrong all these times.

And to all of you who are listening, who I answered that question to, and I answered it so confidently, I deeply, deeply apologize that I got it wrong.

I might've been working with the best information that I had at the time.

And I also might've woven in some of my logic and then definitely woven in some of my hypothesis that sounded like facts.

So I apologize for all of that.

But in doing so, I had a little magic happen because I went to the World Wide Web, right? I went to the big and I said, what is one of the biggest retractions that has ever historically been made through the publishing world where they've had to retract? And there's, of course, Dewey versus Truman, where they called the election too early or wrong or whatever.

And that one wasn't that interesting to me and a little bit too on the nose because it's elections and everyone will stop focusing if I start talking about elections right now.

So I scrolled down and the next one was the Goddard Retraction.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, I recognize that name.

So Robert Goddard was born in Worcester.

He was educated at Worcester Polytechnical Institute that they're very proud of still to this day.

He was considered a genius in rocket science.

And he went on to get his master's degree and his PhD from Clark University, which is about, I could walk to it from a little bit of a long walk, but you're just walking down Park Avenue over to South Main Street.

So Clark University and Worcester Polytech are in the same city within a couple miles of each other.

So he is a true, true, true Worcester scientist, born and raised there and educated there.

So of course, Worcester was proud of him.

But in 1920, while he was developing rocket science, when you say, oh, something's not rocket science, well, this guy was rocket science.

He was developing rocket science.

The New York Times famously published a piece that said, before he goes any further, we want you to know that Robert Gardner's theory about how rockets can be launched is just verifiably untrue and A rocket cannot exist where there is no atmosphere because it will have no air to push up against it.

Okay.

So one of the stories is that everywhere you turn, every corner you turn to, there's something Goddard this or Goddard that.

And Goddard Hall and Goddard, there used to be an institution called the Goddard Institution.

And we all knew it had something to do with a rocket ship.

in Worcester, some guy named Robert Goddard in a rocket ship, but this is just my child brain, right? Like, I don't know.

It's like something about rocket ship and this guy's famous, but I don't know how famous he is.

I never really showed up or paid attention to that part of history until today, until today, because today I started to look up what the proper way is to kind of publish on your podcast, what a true retraction would be, what a true correction would be, because I had it wrong all these times.

And to all of you who are listening, who I answered that question to, and I answered it so confidently, I deeply, deeply apologize that I got it wrong.

I might've been working with the best information that I had at the time.

And I also might've woven in some of my logic and then definitely woven in some of my hypothesis that sounded like facts.

So I apologize for all of that.

But in doing so, I had a little magic happen because I went to the World Wide Web, right? I went to the big and I said, what is one of the biggest retractions that has ever historically been made through the publishing world where they've had to retract? And there's, of course, Dewey versus Truman, where they called the election too early or wrong or whatever.

And that one wasn't that interesting to me and a little bit too on the nose because it's elections and everyone will stop focusing if I start talking about elections right now.

So I scrolled down and the next one was the Goddard Retraction.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, I recognize that name.

So Robert Goddard was born in Worcester.

He was educated at Worcester Polytechnical Institute that they're very proud of still to this day.

He was considered a genius in rocket science.

And he went on to get his master's degree and his PhD from Clark University, which is about, I could walk to it from a little bit of a long walk, but you're just walking down Park Avenue over to South Main Street.

So Clark University and Worcester Polytech are in the same city within a couple miles of each other.

So he is a true, true, true Worcester scientist, born and raised there and educated there.

So of course, Worcester was proud of him.

But in 1920, while he was developing rocket science, when you say, oh, something's not rocket science, well, this guy was rocket science.

He was developing rocket science.

The New York Times famously published a piece that said, before he goes any further, we want you to know that Robert Gardner's theory about how rockets can be launched is just verifiably untrue and A rocket cannot exist where there is no atmosphere because it will have no air to push up against it.

Okay.