6 ms·
One of the perils of research is that we can be wrong in ways that play out on five and ten year time scales. "We" includes the funding agencies, the prevailin
by timdellinger 9y ago
One of the perils of research is that we can be wrong in ways that play out on five and ten year time scales.
"We" includes the funding agencies, the prevailing theories of the day, the ways that our institutions are structured, and the individual researchers themselves.
Failure occurs at all length scales: minutes, hours, days, years, decades.
A failure isn't necessarily a mistake.
It's nice to hear the anecdote, though! So often the only things we hear about science are the successes.
- gt_ 9y agoNo. Your platitude here is only dangerous. The collective mind moves in terms of generations while the free mind moves in terms of days. The function of research is to discover new knowledge, a task often dependent on questioning old knowledge. Worse, when collective operations favor collective mindedness, they are obstructing research by displacing open mindedness. The post is a valuable recollection that should be internalized at any expense.