Favorite all-time short story!
"Profession" is a 1957 novella by Isaac Asimov, about education, teaching, drive, vocation and creativity. It first appeared in the July 1957 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction".
A small fragment follows:
All over Earth, George knew, Olympics would be taking place and young men would be competing, matching their skills against one another in the fight for a place on a new world. There would be the holiday atmosphere, the excitement, the news reports, the self-contained recruiting agents from the worlds beyond space, the glory of victory or the consolations of defeat.
How much of fiction dealt with these motifs, how much of his own boyhood excitement lay in following the events of Olympics from year to year; how many of his own plans –
George Platen could not conceal the longing in his voice.
It was too much to suppress. He said, “Tomorrow’s the first of May. Olympics!”
And that led to his first quarrel with Omani and to Omani’s bitter enunciation of the exact name of the institution in which George found himself.
Omani gazed fixedly at George and said distinctly, “A House for the Feeble-minded.”
Full text after the 1st jump.
