Question

Read the excerpt from Death by Black Hole.

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1916, provides the insight to understand the bizarre structure of space and time in a high-gravity environment. Later research by the American physicist John A. Wheeler, and others, helped to formulate a vocabulary as well as the mathematical tools to describe and predict what a black hole will do to its surroundings.

Read the excerpt from “Man Listening to Disc.”

And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize—or whatever—his huge piano
so he could be with us today.

The central idea that both texts share is

Answer 1

Both passages celebrate creative ingenuity: they credit innovators who devise tools or techniques that make something otherwise impossible (Einstein/Wheeler providing the theory and vocabulary to understand black holes; Thelonious Monk figuring out how to adapt his piano so he could be present).