3 ms·
The fact that pretty much all thoughts from people outside the field are either obvious, false, or nonsensical... doesn't invalidate the idea that flashes of in
by RHSeeger 7y ago
The fact that pretty much all thoughts from people outside the field are either obvious, false, or nonsensical... doesn't invalidate the idea that flashes of insight can come from anywhere. I get what you're saying and agree the odds of it happening are pretty much zero. But sometimes even things with a probability of pretty much 0 can happen. The eigenvalue thing is an example of that, in my opinion.
- specialist 7y agoA layperson could unwittingly trigger a cognitive leap by asking naive questions. A la Feynman saying he can't explain magnetism in a way that I could understand it, the effort could spark an insight or novel angle.
- MiroF 7y agoName a single instance of a lay person without a background in physics discovering the basis behind a phenomenon since 1900. For some reason, physics seems to be disproportionately popular among armchair theorists compared to other fields like math or chemistry.
- ben_w 7y ago> disproportionately popular among armchair theorists compared to other fields like math or chemistry. I’ve heard this before, but I wonder how true it is? I know my experiences are just anecdotes, but I knew a guy who was convinced the Hotel Room/Bellboy/Missing Dollar problem “broke maths”, and I’ve had countless frustrations with family members promoting homeopathy and acquaintances talking about chemical X being “one atom away from being bleach” like that doesn’t apply to water. I’d be interested if anyone has done a real analysis of rates of armchair nonsense by sector.