5 ms·

I've spent that time slowly gathering evidence from the literature to validate my hunch. That is most likely the wrong way to go about this, you should probabl

I've spent that time slowly gathering evidence from the literature to validate my hunch. That is most likely the wrong way to go about this, you should probably look for evidence that your hunch is wrong, that it is in conflict with established physics.

exe34 3y ago
It can mean the same thing - when I have a hunch I think of as many ways of shooting it down as possible - but that often involves predicting something starting from the hunch and then testing that prediction against nature/existing literature. I'd still call it "trying to validate this hunch".
jdewerd 3y ago
Right, in fact it's very much "a thing" for bored/retired engineers (or otherwise physics-adjacent) to guess a new physics principle and convince themselves that it must be correct without actually doing the boring and difficult work of checking it against existing known-good principles / data and coming up with experiments that prove it to be usefully differentiated. You know, the difficult parts of science. This is the source of a steady stream of crackpots that regularly pester the physics community. Don't be one of them. If your trajectory doesn't include a bunch of graduate level physics classes, a literature review, and a big math slog, you are at risk. Existing techniques are very powerful and you need to know them well before you know what counts as a genuine addition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11lPhMSulSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11lPhMSulSU
- i_am_a_peasant 3y ago
  Meh, I wish I'd had taken the physics path. But life happened. Too late to change now. Maybe I can at least make a lot of money by making something useful.
  - jdewerd 3y ago
    The fact that physical theory has such good coverage of everyday circumstances is really tough news if you want to do physics, but it's excellent news if you want to do engineering :)
emmelaich 3y ago
Yes, pruning hunches fast is important - then again it's important to have the hunches in the first place.

exe34 3y ago

It can mean the same thing - when I have a hunch I think of as many ways of shooting it down as possible - but that often involves predicting something starting from the hunch and then testing that prediction against nature/existing literature. I'd still call it "trying to validate this hunch".

jdewerd 3y ago

Right, in fact it's very much "a thing" for bored/retired engineers (or otherwise physics-adjacent) to guess a new physics principle and convince themselves that it must be correct without actually doing the boring and difficult work of checking it against existing known-good principles / data and coming up with experiments that prove it to be usefully differentiated. You know, the difficult parts of science. This is the source of a steady stream of crackpots that regularly pester the physics community. Don't be one of them. If your trajectory doesn't include a bunch of graduate level physics classes, a literature review, and a big math slog, you are at risk. Existing techniques are very powerful and you need to know them well before you know what counts as a genuine addition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11lPhMSulSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11lPhMSulSU

i_am_a_peasant 3y ago
Meh, I wish I'd had taken the physics path. But life happened. Too late to change now. Maybe I can at least make a lot of money by making something useful.
- jdewerd 3y ago
  The fact that physical theory has such good coverage of everyday circumstances is really tough news if you want to do physics, but it's excellent news if you want to do engineering :)

emmelaich 3y ago

Yes, pruning hunches fast is important - then again it's important to have the hunches in the first place.