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> Medrano comes from a Mexican-American family and speaks Spanish, so understanding the Spanish census document was no problem. Handling numbers and data came n

> Medrano comes from a Mexican-American family and speaks Spanish, so understanding the Spanish census document was no problem. Handling numbers and data came naturally to him as well, as an economics major. The challenge, as both Medrano and Urton note, seemed to demand a perfect alignment of his skills and interests. I wonder how many unsolved problems there are out there with this problem. Problems that are solvable, they just lack one mind that can view the issue from the proper perspective. I suspect that as the breadth of human knowledge increases, this type of problem will become more and more common.

tenkabuto 9y ago
Hopefully people that lack the proper perspective won't lead those with the proper perspective to not even try.
- snarf21 9y ago
  Even more so, there is a question I asked a professor a long time ago. Does learning make us dumber? As we learn things and take them as absolute truth, we limit our ability to explore new ideas and concepts. The search is sometimes the more important thing.
- teej 9y ago
  There’s a reason why Max Planck said: > “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
stevenwoo 9y ago
The recent lichen genetic revelation that rewrote textbook definitions is similar, kinda magical coincidences in all the things that had to fall into place (or survivorship bias?/good writer telling story). If you are not familiar with it - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-guy-from-a-montana-trailer-park-upturned-150-years-of-biology/491702/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-gu...
- rkuykendall-com 9y ago
  That story was so much more exciting than it deserved to be. What a great writer.
- jefurii 9y ago
  > Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. “They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts,” says Spribille. “That was the bottleneck of my life.” This marks a significant point in America's status as an educational and scientific power in the world.
lloeki 9y ago
You don't need to go out of your way looking for highly challenging world class unsolved problems: I'm versed not just in CS/IT but also in various fields of physics, thermodynamics, solid and fluid mechanics, automation, electricity, and electronics, and it's readily apparent to me that some solutions or effects are just obvious to me while being completely elusive to my colleagues with a good level but pure CS/IT education. This is a case similar to biodiversity vs monoculture: complimentary knowledge fosters alternative modelling scenarios and patterns, nourishing the mind, not just drawing parallels but spurring creative thinking and easing radical changes of perspective.
- wavegeek 9y ago
  I would be interested to hear some examples of this. Not doubting you but this would be very enriching. One obvious example from my own life: Due to <issues> I needed to understand medical research in <area>. There is a huge opportunity in medical research for people who actually have a deep understanding of statistics. Or even an elementary understanding. Protip: just because P>0.5 it does not prove "no effect".
wasx 9y ago
I would dare say the majority of unsolved problems are solvable by an individual with a unique perspective and set of skills. Having those people find those problems seems like a case of serendipity more often than not.
danso 9y ago
> I wonder how many unsolved problems there are out there with this problem. Assuming that there are many, this has been to me a compelling reason why cultural diversity is important to a company/organization, for both social justice reasons and for the bottom line -- in terms of having people who can broaden the scope of your work and problem recognition.
ChuckMcM 9y ago
It is a similar line of reasoning that led me to recognize that anything you can learn might be useful someday, thus learning as an activity is intrinsically valuable.
failrate 9y ago
A few. For example, the Indus seals have symbols that may be a language, but no one has been able to decipher them.
yourapostasy 9y ago
If you like the “proper perspective puts it all in place” meme, then you should check out James Burke’s “Connections” TV series (there was a sequel series as well), which is all about those perspectives in the history of science and engineering.

tenkabuto 9y ago

Hopefully people that lack the proper perspective won't lead those with the proper perspective to not even try.

snarf21 9y ago
Even more so, there is a question I asked a professor a long time ago. Does learning make us dumber? As we learn things and take them as absolute truth, we limit our ability to explore new ideas and concepts. The search is sometimes the more important thing.
teej 9y ago
There’s a reason why Max Planck said: > “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

stevenwoo 9y ago

The recent lichen genetic revelation that rewrote textbook definitions is similar, kinda magical coincidences in all the things that had to fall into place (or survivorship bias?/good writer telling story). If you are not familiar with it - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-guy-from-a-montana-trailer-park-upturned-150-years-of-biology/491702/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-gu...

rkuykendall-com 9y ago
That story was so much more exciting than it deserved to be. What a great writer.
jefurii 9y ago
> Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. “They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts,” says Spribille. “That was the bottleneck of my life.” This marks a significant point in America's status as an educational and scientific power in the world.

lloeki 9y ago

You don't need to go out of your way looking for highly challenging world class unsolved problems: I'm versed not just in CS/IT but also in various fields of physics, thermodynamics, solid and fluid mechanics, automation, electricity, and electronics, and it's readily apparent to me that some solutions or effects are just obvious to me while being completely elusive to my colleagues with a good level but pure CS/IT education. This is a case similar to biodiversity vs monoculture: complimentary knowledge fosters alternative modelling scenarios and patterns, nourishing the mind, not just drawing parallels but spurring creative thinking and easing radical changes of perspective.

wavegeek 9y ago
I would be interested to hear some examples of this. Not doubting you but this would be very enriching. One obvious example from my own life: Due to <issues> I needed to understand medical research in <area>. There is a huge opportunity in medical research for people who actually have a deep understanding of statistics. Or even an elementary understanding. Protip: just because P>0.5 it does not prove "no effect".

wasx 9y ago

I would dare say the majority of unsolved problems are solvable by an individual with a unique perspective and set of skills. Having those people find those problems seems like a case of serendipity more often than not.

danso 9y ago

> I wonder how many unsolved problems there are out there with this problem. Assuming that there are many, this has been to me a compelling reason why cultural diversity is important to a company/organization, for both social justice reasons and for the bottom line -- in terms of having people who can broaden the scope of your work and problem recognition.

ChuckMcM 9y ago

It is a similar line of reasoning that led me to recognize that anything you can learn might be useful someday, thus learning as an activity is intrinsically valuable.

failrate 9y ago

A few. For example, the Indus seals have symbols that may be a language, but no one has been able to decipher them.

yourapostasy 9y ago

If you like the “proper perspective puts it all in place” meme, then you should check out James Burke’s “Connections” TV series (there was a sequel series as well), which is all about those perspectives in the history of science and engineering.