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Would we encourage an epidemiologist to apply ‘fresh thinking’ to the design of an electrical substation? Yes, absolutely. If an epidemiologist identifies and

Would we encourage an epidemiologist to apply ‘fresh thinking’ to the design of an electrical substation? Yes, absolutely. If an epidemiologist identifies and models a trend in human disease around substations, or a trend in failures of substations, or a new way of modeling the ways electrical demand can change over time and influence demand in other times and places, etc., then their input should absolutely be considered. Just as it's annoying when a total outsider claims to know everything about a field, it is equally problematic when insiders refuse to acknowledge anyone on the outside.

salty_biscuits 7y ago
That rubbed me up the wrong way too. Applied mathematics is really quite transferable across disciplines, you just usually don't have the domain knowledge to stop you chasing dead ends or reinventing the wheel.
- Avamander 7y ago
  Not to mention that sometimes experts in their fields miss common knowledge in other areas. Like the biologist that reinvented integration, Riemann sum - http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/2/152 http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/2/1... (https://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/medical-researcher-discovers-integration-gets-75-citations/ https://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/medical-research...).
noobermin 7y ago
The easy medium is talking to other scientists, may be getting them on as a co-author.