Last year, Neil deGrasse Tyson came to Salt Lake City to speak as part of the Tanner Lecture Series. Before he gave his speech, I had the opportunity to briefly speak with him, and he said something amazing.
We were talking about what I wanted to do, and I said that I hoped to be an engineer. He asked me, "You hope to be an engineer?" I said that, yes, I did. He said, "If there was an asteroid about to destroy the Earth, would you hope that it missed, or would you do something about it?" The obvious answer was that I would do something about it. Then he said the words I won't forget, "Hope is for those who are not in control."
