<p>The prompt was: "Are all discoveries the result of focusing only on one subject?"
Response:</p>
<p>All discoveries are not the result of focusing on one subject. Both literature and physics have shown this, as evidenced by author Marjane Satrapi and lionized physicist Richard Feynman. Both discovered truths about the world around them by looking to and focusing on multiple disciplines.</p>
<p>In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi writes about her discoveries of the failings of the new Iranian government that has assumed power after the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi first discovers how the government is unstable while going to school. She is not at all focused on rooting out political failures, but she notes how, on one day, she began her school day by praying for the health of the Shah and begins the next by denouncing the Shah and tearing his photo from her school books. By focusing on her schoolwork and her family's liberty, Satrapi discovers how unstable the government is. She is focused on many things: her freedom, her friends, and her schoolwork, but still, she makes the valuble discovery that the government is unstable and cannot be trusted. Satrapi makes another important discovery while pursuing her secondary education in Vienna. While she focuses on pleasing the nuns she lives with, making friends, and doing drugs, she receives the important realization that liberalism and freedom are only useful when enjoyed responsibly. She makes the further discovery, while focusing on many separate facets of her life, that she has not enjoyed her freedom responsibly. Satrapi's life, as depicted in her memoir, Persepolis, evidences that important discoveries can be made by focusing on many different subjects.</p>
<p>Richard Feynman, a scientific luminary, also made several discoveries as the result of concentration on different disciplines. His discovery of the unifying principles of quantum electrodynamics were made, not cooped up in a Caltech laboratory, but on the beaches of Japan. While in Japan, Feynman attended a tea ceremony. When he viewed the way light reflected off of a mirror in the room he was sitting in (as it reflected a woman he was attempting to flirt with), he discovered how the idea of particle-wave duality was impossible. By focusing on the tea ceremony, a mirror, and a beautiful woman, Feynman made a valuable contribution to the work of science. He made an equally valuble contribution while drinking a glass of water. The water, which was icy cold, made his hands involuntarily loosen, which is when Feynman discovered that the O-rings on the Challenger had lost their form because of cold weather. This loosening caused the tragic accident of the Challenger. Feynman's scientific theories were not made as the result of a focus on science, but as the result of focus on many different topics.</p>
<p>Not all valuble discoveries come from focus on one subject. By focusing on many different topics, the mind broadens, making discoveries easier to come by, at least sometimes.</p>
<p>END RESPONSE</p>
<p>I ran out of room at that point. I wrote this under timed conditions and completed it in roughly 22 minutes. If you could give me a score (out of 12) and also some constructive criticism, that would be greatly appreciated. And if you'd like, leave a note for me to score your essay, and I would be glad to. I'm a much better judge of others' writing than a judge of my own writing.</p>