4 ms·

I see these type of comments all the time "Oh this totally won't work". And I wonder, why is this random person on the internet right, and the authors of this

by giarc 6y ago

I see these type of comments all the time "Oh this totally won't work". And I wonder, why is this random person on the internet right, and the authors of this paper wrong (or vice versa)? I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but are people on the internet just proper bullshitters, or is there something fundamentally wrong with academia that people publish papers that have no merit.

belval 6y ago
It's more of a cultural difference between HN users (engineers/practitioners) and academia which can work in the abstract. The top comment is probably not wrong yet the base paper is not necessarily devoid of merits. Think of it this way, this has no practical implementation and does not solve the engineering problems we have right now but it might lead to a different yet related discovery down the line which we will solve a different problem in 10-20 years. Yes for us engineer this seems like a pointless (very stupid!) endeavour, but in practice that's just how research works. Scientist will explore ideas that are not necessarily feasible or useful and create building blocks for future research. Not everyone in energy storage has to work on designing new alloys for anodes and cathodes otherwise we'd stagnate. We need the fringe and very stupid ideas as well.
oivey 6y ago
Most people on the internet are full of shit, and sometimes people in academia push unrealistic ideas. GP’s comment might be true (not my area of expertise), but HN definitely has a problem where software developers portray themselves as an expert in every engineering domain.
thereisnospork 6y ago
It's a little bit of a lot of things - academic vs industrial incentives, tunnel vision, and the necessity to prove 'impact' for grants. Pretty much every paper will claim something pretty extraordinary is now possible. I mean, why publish a paper on a battery technology if it isn't going to upset Li-ion or revolutionize grid storage? I'm not familiar with this specific instance but GP's point is exactly the sort of technical oversight or omission I'd expect.
TruthWillHurt 6y ago
Or maybe OP spent some time researching Aluminum-air fuel-cells and actually knows his stuff, but is a bit tired of "academia" throwing these half-thought out ideas into the world to increase their number of publications. Maybe same OP is tired of imposter-type execs here on HN being super-positive about media-regurtitated ideas and bombastic headlines, so he opened a troll account where he doesn't need to be all appologetic and polite and just tell it like it is.

by giarc 6y ago

belval 6y ago

It's more of a cultural difference between HN users (engineers/practitioners) and academia which can work in the abstract. The top comment is probably not wrong yet the base paper is not necessarily devoid of merits. Think of it this way, this has no practical implementation and does not solve the engineering problems we have right now but it might lead to a different yet related discovery down the line which we will solve a different problem in 10-20 years. Yes for us engineer this seems like a pointless (very stupid!) endeavour, but in practice that's just how research works. Scientist will explore ideas that are not necessarily feasible or useful and create building blocks for future research. Not everyone in energy storage has to work on designing new alloys for anodes and cathodes otherwise we'd stagnate. We need the fringe and very stupid ideas as well.

oivey 6y ago

Most people on the internet are full of shit, and sometimes people in academia push unrealistic ideas. GP’s comment might be true (not my area of expertise), but HN definitely has a problem where software developers portray themselves as an expert in every engineering domain.

thereisnospork 6y ago

It's a little bit of a lot of things - academic vs industrial incentives, tunnel vision, and the necessity to prove 'impact' for grants. Pretty much every paper will claim something pretty extraordinary is now possible. I mean, why publish a paper on a battery technology if it isn't going to upset Li-ion or revolutionize grid storage? I'm not familiar with this specific instance but GP's point is exactly the sort of technical oversight or omission I'd expect.

TruthWillHurt 6y ago

Or maybe OP spent some time researching Aluminum-air fuel-cells and actually knows his stuff, but is a bit tired of "academia" throwing these half-thought out ideas into the world to increase their number of publications. Maybe same OP is tired of imposter-type execs here on HN being super-positive about media-regurtitated ideas and bombastic headlines, so he opened a troll account where he doesn't need to be all appologetic and polite and just tell it like it is.