> Too many big discoveries were made by people who were "too idiotic or hard headed" to realize that something is impossible. While this does sometimes happen,

> Too many big discoveries were made by people who were "too idiotic or hard headed" to realize that something is impossible. While this does sometimes happen, I do think that the more common situation is that people actually review the existing evidence and prior art and then they make a calculated (!) gamble - in fact, this is e.g. probably why the Wright brothers succeeded as pioneers of aviation as opposed to dozens of other people who would just try stuff more haphazardly and then end up dying in the process.