Gift to

John W . CampbeJl W2ZCU
How To Be An Amateur
The Go od A mateur ­
th at is, th e amateur
who is useful in causing
progress in the f ield he's in
-has certai n basic characteristics
that are the same,
no matter w hat that field
may be. He may be an am a­
teur in radio, electronics,
chem istry, painting, or
anything else; to be usefu l
he mu st have a certain basic
code-the Code of t he
Am ateur.
A Good Amat eur is.
1. Ignorant.
2. Egocent ric .
3. Impracti cal.
4. Di srespectf ul
of aut hority.
5. Materialistic, or
pragma t ic - not idealistic/theoret
ica l.
6. Inconsistent.
7. Illogical.
8. Di scon tented.
9. Aggressive.
10. Unfair.
Everyone of those characteristics,
you no doubt
noti ced, is generall y considered
antisoc ial. The Good
Amateu r ;s antisocial; he's
egocentric, and enjoys his
own com pany, his own
work, mor e th an the best
chitc hat of the coc ktailpa
rty gro up t ha t is, of
cou rse, the highest ideal of
th e ext rovert-social type.
The Amateur is antisocial in
Reprinted from 73 Magaz ine,
October, 1960.
that he likes- actu all y enjo
ys! - thinkingl He actually
prefers using his bra ins to
flapping his jaw; he normally
thinks before op ening his
mouth. This is, of course,
anti social, because it imposes
t he necessity of thinking
on those arou nd him ­
w h ich n atural ly m akes
them very un comfortable.
They're not used to it.
The Am ateur is Ignorant;
this is necessary. because
he wants to learn- and you
can't learn something you
already know. The th ing
that makes an am ateur's ignoranc
e so usefu l, however,
is that you can't learn if you
already think you know,
eit her. The old li ne abo ut
" It ain't so." The Amateur is
Ignor ant and escapes that
trouble. Thro ugho ut hi s­
tory, amateurs have been
lou sing t hings up for professionals
by doing what everyone
who kne w anything
about the business knew
was impossibl e . . . until the
ama teur, who didn't know
any bet ter, did it.
L ik e Mad Ant ho ny
W ayne during th e Revolution
- the amateur soldier.
He attacked a perfectly impregnable
British posit ion.
A nyo ne w i t h m ilita r y
know ledge knew it was impregnab
le because th ere
were sheer, 30G-foot cl iffs
protecting it on three sides,
making attack from those
directions im possible. Mad
Anthony, not knowin g any
better, led his men up the
Pallisa des at ni gh t and
cleaned ou t the Briti sh.
The Amateur has to be
Egocent r i c . T h a t is ,
no body's go ing to pay him
for all the hard wor k he
does, so he'd better enjoy
w hat he' s doing because it
pleases him. All his wo rk
wi ll , 99.99% of the ti me,
yield nothing but di scarded
materials and passed time.
In t he cou rse of ten years,
an Ama te ur may spend
$10,000 on his hobby and
w ind up w it h $2 worth of
ju nk and nothing else.. . except
t he self -sat isfying fun
he had do ing it.
That, by the way, is one
of the ways in wh ich the
Amateur is Impractical and
Unfair. Amateurs happily
tackle a research project
that has one chance in
10,000 of succeeding, and
spend ten yea rs and $10,000
on it. Obvi ou sly, th is is economically
unsound; no professional
research organiz a­
tion wo uld consider so risky
a venture; it wouId be economic
suicide. For one
thing, the Amateur in questio
n may be a $100,000-ayea
r executive in a major
corporation; he's worth that
to his compa ny because of
the extremely high level of
judgment he has. That high
abil ity to judge, to select
between alternatives, is being
app li ed in hi s hob ­
by - the $10,000 wort h of
material he invests in his
ho bby is nothing compared
to the $1,000,000 wor th of
high ly t rained judgment
he's also investing!
But the Am at eur can, of
co urse, charge off al l those
expenses, all the investment
of time. effort, energy,
and money to " Entertainment."
It' s a heads-lw
in-tails-you-lose setup; if
his research does not yield
the desired result - it stil l
yields ten years of fi ne entertainment.
This isvery unfair competition
from the viewpoint of
the professional, w ho has to
charge all the t ime, effort,
and mon ey invested to "expenses"
- he can't call it
"entertainment." The Amateur's
research project, in
other words, can never wind
up bankr upt-in the red - a
net loss. The fun of doing it,
not t he result, is the main
product; any workable result
is, then, pu re gravy - a
bonus over and above the
call of entertai nment.
Time and time again in
the history of Science, the
great breakthroughs have
been made by amateu rs;
the great breakthrough s always
will, fo r all time to
come, be made by amateurs.
The reason's simple:
A true Am ateur can tackle a
156 73 Magazine· Octo ber, 1980