5 ms·
Most ideas people have suck. That's sort of the problem of new ideas in particular. When you're working, their failures aren't recognized as some kind of thing
by SapphireSun 9y ago
Most ideas people have suck. That's sort of the problem of new ideas in particular. When you're working, their failures aren't recognized as some kind of thing you need to tell the world about, you just tried something speculative and it didn't work out. Writing papers sucks (though it can be ego satisfying if you did something really cool), and writing papers about negative results that no one will publish sucks even more (or give you money for). Also, if you do something really dumb, now everyone will know about it.
- simplexion 9y agoYet people still do studies on alternative "medicines" and other stupidity like "wind turbine sickness." That is literally doing something dumb that everyone will hear about.
- vacri 9y agoDoing studies on those things you think are stupid is the right thing to do. Counter-intuitive stuff is found all the time in science. Occasionally those alternative medicines get tested and turn out to work, in which case they become regular medicine. By declaring something as "too dumb to study", you're a priori declaring the result, which is bad science.
- SapphireSun 9y agoFor what it's worth, I'm just describing the ground reality of research, not the utopian vision we should aspire to.