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I remember an old PhD comics strip where a professor says “Remember kids, the only difference between fooling around and science is writing it down.”. In the co
by p4bl0 3y ago
I remember an old PhD comics strip where a professor says “Remember kids, the only difference between fooling around and science is writing it down.”. In the context the goal was obviously for it to be funny but it is actually a very good and wise advice.
- winter_blue 3y agoWow, that's actually deeper than it sounds. I do wonder though: did a lot of famous scientists (like Einstein, Feynman, Turing, etc) use writing as a vehicle for learning?
- maxov 3y agoAbsolutely! (also see the article) https://www.colorado.edu/artssciences-advising/resource-library/life-skills/the-feynman-technique-in-academic-coaching https://www.colorado.edu/artssciences-advising/resource-libr...
- mr_mitm 3y agoAlso, see the Feynman algorithm: https://proftomcrick.com/2011/04/26/feynman-problem-solving-algorithm/ https://proftomcrick.com/2011/04/26/feynman-problem-solving-... > 1. Write down the problem. > 2. Think very hard. > 3. Write down the answer. The first step is crucial.
- uncletaco 3y agoFeynman was famous for stealing his coworkers’ pens and pencils so I have to assume he was writing useful thing down.
- simonw 3y agoSee "inventor's notebook": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor%27s_notebook https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor%27s_notebook - some good examples of famous notebook habits are linked to from there (Einstein and Tesla and Edison and da Vinci are all mentioned).
- JJMcJ 3y agoThough he wasn't an eminent scientist, I worked with someone who had gone through engineering school back in the 1950s. He kept volumes of meticulous notebooks and saved a great deal of time because he never had to waste hours on "I know I figured this out in October 2022 but I can't remember how". A real inventor's notebook today has a space to sign and date each page, and you should X out any space you don't use. That helps it have legal force.
- leksak 3y ago> That helps it have legal force Could you elaborate on this point?
- simonw 3y agoPresumably this is about intellectual property claims. If you get into legal issues around patents, being able to prove when you made notes on something could be important. Signing and dating each page helps demonstrate that you've been taking notes at specific times. Crossing out the areas of the page that you don't use helps in case you get accused of deliberately leaving blank space in your notebook so you can backfill it later on a page that you already signed and dated. Of course, this is predicated on the idea that you use pen and paper for notes! All of my notes have been digital for over a decade at this point.
- brabel 3y agoEinstein was really good at thought experiments... and if I remember correctly, he said once that he sometimes had "trouble" to express thoughts in words.
- adversaryIdiot 3y agoIf you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
- beltsazar 3y ago> When historian Charles Weiner looked over a pile of Richard Feynman’s notebooks, he called them a wonderful ‘record of his day-to-day work’. > “No, no!”, Feynman objected strongly. > “They aren’t a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process. I actually did the work on the paper.” > “Well,” Weiner said, “The work was done in your head, but the record of it is still here.” > “No, it’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work on paper and this is the paper. Okay?”, Feynman explained.
- nomel 3y agoFirst we augment/externalized calorie storage from our fat cells to our livestock/crops. Then we augment/externalized our short and long term memory from our minds with writing. You'll always find a symbol covered napkin next to someone who's working out something difficult, without any writing paper.
- tracerbulletx 3y agoI think you could probably consider mathematic notation as a form of writing.
- NegativeK 3y agoYou absolutely can; it's just a formalized shorthand for words. That said, people don't publish papers that are just math notation. There's surrounding words to explain and motivate concepts.
- fnands 3y agoIt's both flippant and surprisingly deep, which I think is a nice combo. It's also the opening quote in my PhD thesis.
- quickthrower2 3y agoThe only difference between fooling around and science is p < 0.05 ?
- lolinder 3y agoIt's still science even with a low p value! It's just a negative result instead of a positive one. Such results really ought to be published, even if they aren't usually.
- rchaud 3y agoNo, because p < 0.05 can be achieved by simply dropping inconvenient variables from the estimation model. The results dont have to be conclusive for science, they just have to be documented.
- bgun 3y agoNot sure which came first or if it’s an even older saying, but Mythbusters said the same thing. https://youtu.be/BSUMBBFjxrY https://youtu.be/BSUMBBFjxrY
- aae42 3y agoThat's in the context of recording data from experiments, though
- p4bl0 3y agoNot only. Just like when actually coding to implement a given specification you find yourself refining the specification and discovering edge cases that weren't taken into account etc., when you actually start writing for other you need to make everything clear and to actually develop your thoughts, and it also "debugs the science", if I may. See also the concept of rubber duck debugging which is another instance of the same kind of effect.