3 ms·
Worth noting it seems like didn't always used to be this way. My impression is researchers had much fewer distractions in the early 20th century. It's not surpr
by n4r9 3y ago
Worth noting it seems like didn't always used to be this way. My impression is researchers had much fewer distractions in the early 20th century. It's not surprising how much ground-breaking progress was made at the time when you see it this way.
- Tenoke 3y agoIt seems rather naive to think that's the reason why there was so much progress then rather than say due to there being more low hanging fruit.
- simmerup 3y agoThey stood on the shoulders of giants just like we do. It seems naive to think that getting on those shoulders in this modern age won’t create a brand new batch of low hanging fruit to pick if you’re willing to put the effort in
- yCombLinks 3y agoEventually the tree is picked clean, it doesn't matter how high you go. There's just very little left and all the pickers are trying to get the same fruit.
- simmerup 3y agoPeople thought the same one hundred years ago, and they will likely feel the same in the next hundred years when we all have our own AI assistants and probably stuff like ocular implants to replace monitors and other unfathomable discoveries
- yCombLinks 3y agoEverything we know about modern physics was being discovered at that time. Math formalism was really taking a foothold. Neither field has seen major advancements since roughly the 70s. Computer science is the same. Now we're computer plumbers, not scientists. I'm not suggesting there won't be advancements, but we solved most of the fundamentals in that time period
- n4r9 3y ago> we solved most of the fundamentals in that time period Arguably this is just one interpretation, the other being "we haven't made fundamental progress since that time period". In my limited understanding as a mathematician, there's definitely room for progress: settling the measurement problem, or formulating a theory of quantum gravity, say.
- n4r9 3y agoIt just makes a lot of sense to me that if you give researchers several hours more deep focus time per day, they'll make more progress. I appreciate the low hanging fruit argument, but it depends on an assumption about what's left to solve.
- Gravityloss 3y agoHell, even brain surgeons spend most of their time nowadays fighting some IT systems...
- naravara 3y agoGrant funding has gotten more and more focused on direct applicability to publishable findings or patentable research over time. Metrics rule everything around us. Which means researchers have to spend ever more time "proving" the "value" of their work.
- jahnu 3y agoPolitics seems similar. Chasing money or coverage most of the time because that's the system now.
- suction 3y agoI have the theory that this is due to digitalisation. We are now at the stage where "everybody" needs to know Tech, and everybody now wants to work in the hip Tech companoes, regardless of own technical skills or mindset: Project managers, legal, accounting, etc. nowadays all want to have a say in Tech aspects, and this creates pressure on the actual tech departments of a corporation to create reports and documentation and explain themselves much more than it used to be. It's a bad situation for tech people to have to deal with the FUD of all other departments because those departments want to present themselves as knowledgeable and contributing to the technical aspects, when they are not able to at all.
- d4rkp4ttern 3y agoIndeed, I was literally saying this yesterday. If you stay out of the “news stream” you can pursue your ideas deeply and even if someone else is working on something similar, you will have your own unique take on it.
- d4rkp4ttern 3y agoForgot to post link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36324127 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36324127