3 ms·
It seems likely that the two years of effort were essential in getting him to the point where he could have the breakthrough.
by alew1 8y ago
It seems likely that the two years of effort were essential in getting him to the point where he could have the breakthrough.
- vladislav 8y agoAre you confident the majority of the gains weren't made in the first year? It's exactly my point that knowing when to give it a rest is hard to estimate, and those who work on these problems professionally are likely to just keep pushing, potentially just spinning their wheels. Interestingly, the brain keeps working on these problems subconsciously, so you can actually get more done if you work on more things and tend to give up a bit earlier. I've solved hard problems before in an afternoon, a year after being hopelessly stuck on them, and my sincere estimate is that I would have made exactly zero progress had I kept pushing.