Yours is a fantastic, spot-on comment. It's easy to get swayed by controversial, non-mainstream opinions, especially when you're not knowledgable about the fiel

Yours is a fantastic, spot-on comment. It's easy to get swayed by controversial, non-mainstream opinions, especially when you're not knowledgable about the field. One trick that I'm forcing myself to use is to take evidence of what people do v/s what they say. String theorists may not be vocal in countering the objections raised, or they may simply consider getting into a debate a waste of time. But the fact that hundreds of smart people are choosing to spend time on something is _some_ evidence that the project is not completely misguided. Of course, the positive evidence has to be balanced with the evidence of group thinking and sunk cost fallacy.