I was going to make the exact same comparison with the mustard seed and coconut, but looking at the numbers, it more or less tracks as being the center of the log scale between the two seeds. Palm seeds in general are exceptionally large compared to anything else, while we're at it.

In what way, if you don't mind? I always have the impression that he is practical to a fault, and consistent in his prescription for engineering above all.

Yeah, I imagine that managing one's expectations is the most vital at the formation stages, which could be what is meant.

No, this should never have to happen. Medical professionals are certainly well-compensated, but direct providers of care receive less than 15% of healthcare revenues. It shouldn't be expected for doctors to personally pay off medical debts, they shouldn't exist in the first place!

You are right! But I meant another thing: it should be normal that if somebody can not pay you back and that you have enough money, that you should forgive them...

Novel development in a complex problem space isn't something one can just throw manpower at and expect progress. I'm sure that a certain amount of his fame is due to being a famous architect, as name recognition always compounds. There's no way he's more influential than the rest of the industry combined (shoulders of giants and whatnot), but I would be hard pressed to find press recognition of other hardware engineers. Still, he is undoubtedly exceptional.

For example, one could round up as many scientists as they could find in 1900, but there is no number that would guarantee the progress made in theoretical physics by someone like Einstein alone.

Henry Poincaré ? Max Planck? Marie Curie? Pauline and Heisenberg were a bit later I think.

I imagine high density data storage devices could be worth it, especially in a scenario of a colonized galaxy with a lot of background noise.

Contamination doesn't even have to be self-replicating to be a major concern. Many organometallic compounds are exceedingly lethal and accumulate in biotic life. If alien tissue uses any to a significant degree, it would have disastrous consequences.

Obviously, the dangers of runaway self-replication makes even the smallest samples of primitive life potentially more deadly. And, while primitive life is far more likely in the universe at large, it is astronomically unlikely to reach our solar system undirected.

But when talking of other solar system bodies, like Mars, isn't it the other way around? I.e. astronomically unlikely that contaminants haven't already found their way to earth, undirected, for billions of years now?

More than just burn, 'high' explosives detonate [0], where the pressure wave itself provides the activation energy required to sustain the reaction.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detonation