Why Did Jared Diamond Save a Student From Expulsion?

Jared Diamond talked his department into keeping his second graduate student after the student did poorly on an exam. The student later became an outstanding researcher. Diamond forgives mistakes because people forgave him when his own career nearly ended.

For 36 years he was professor of physiology at UCLA Medical School, running laboratory experiments with graduate students and postdocs. Quite a few of them screwed up and made big mistakes. His department wanted to expel the second graduate student over the exam. Diamond convinced them to let him stay. A couple of other students had close calls too.

Diamond says he came close himself to having his career ended, and people forgave him. His career then developed very well. Because he was forgiven, he says it behooves him to forgive his students.