ols, well knowing this, have
the first year course for _all_ students the same. Only in the
second and subsequent years does specialization start.

By the sophomore year, a student may say, "I want to be a
_chemical_ engineer."

At graduation, he may say, "I'm going into chemical engineering
_construction_."

Ten years later he may explain that he's a chemical engineer
specializing in the construction of corrosion-resistant structures,
such as electroplating baths and pickling tanks for stainless steel.

Year by year, his knowledge has become more specialized, and much
deeper. He's better and better able to do the important work the world
needs done, but in learning to do it, he's necessarily lost some of
the broad and enthusiastic scope he once had.

These are early stories of the early days of science-fiction. Radar
hadn't been invented; we missed that idea. But while these stories
don't have the finesse of later work--they have a bounding enthusiasm
that belongs with a young field, designed for and built by young men.
Most of the writers of those early stories were, like myself, college
students. (_Piracy Preferred_ was written while I was a sophomore
at M.I.T.)

For old-timers in science-fiction--these are typical of the
days when the field was starting. They've got a fine flavor
of our own younger enthusiasm.

For new readers of science-fiction--these have the stuff that laid the
groundwork of today's work, they're the stories that were meant for
young imaginations, for people who wanted to think about the world
they had to build in the years to come.

Along about sixteen to nineteen, a young man has to decide what is,
for him, the Job That Needs Doing--and get ready to get in and pitch.
If he selects well, selects with understanding and foresight, he'll
pick a job that _does_ need doing, one that will return rewards
in satisfaction as well as money. No other man can pick that for him;
he must choose the Job that _he_ feels fitting.

Crystal balls can be bought fairly reasonably--but they don't work
well. History books can be bought even more cheaply, and they're
moderately reliable. (Though necessarily filtered through the cultural
attitudes of the man who wrote them.) But they don't work well as
predicting machines, because the world is changing too rapidly.

The world today, for instance, needs engineers desperately. There a
lot of jobs that the Nation would like to get done that can't even be
star