By the time his ideas became accepted he had already forged ahead to take up a new attitude. Szilard himself illustrated this characteristic in a story which he liked to tell about himself. He served once on a jury in a murder case. When the first vote was taken, eleven jurors were in favour of convicting, but one — Szilard — was for acquittal. Since unanimity was required, the discussion was resumed and Szilard expounded his arguments. After some time another vote was taken; the result was again eleven to one, but this time eleven were for acquittal, and one for conviction: the odd vote was Szilard’s who had in the meantime changed his mind!

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "By the time his ideas became accepted he had already forged ahead to take up a new attitude. Szilard himself illustrated this characteristic in a story which he liked to tell about himself. He served once on a jury in a murder case. When the first vote was taken, eleven jurors were in favour of convicting, but one — Szilard — was for acquittal. Since unanimity was required, the discussion was resumed and Szilard expounded his arguments. After some time another vote was taken; the result was again eleven to one, but this time eleven were for acquittal, and one for conviction: the odd vote was Szilard’s who had in the meantime changed his mind!" in the context of "Rotblat, J. "The sixteen faces of Leo Szilard." (1973): 67-68." to mean that wisdom is timeless.