I remember when I was pretty young someone gave me an article and said that, "This scientist made an equation to show many alien civilizations there are."

I was like: that's amazing! How could anyone figure that out? Science is nuts!

Then I read the equation. I was both disappointed and completely impressed. It didn't tell you how many aliens there are. It told you how to estimate that number and what you'd need to know to hone that estimate.

That, actually, had a pretty big influence on my through my eng career.