"if you're not the quickest, just don't try to race anyone else for solving a problem" I have heard that too. I was talking with a noted probabilist, who co-a

"if you're not the quickest, just don't try to race anyone else for solving a problem" I have heard that too. I was talking with a noted probabilist, who co-authored a well-regarded book, about some work that Michel Talagrand (a very accomplished mathematician) was starting to publish. He said, "just have to get out of the way," and when I gave a quizzical look, continued, "That guy is a bulldozer." Basically, you might sweat for a year and end up being a special case of a more general result that Talagrand just proved. Thurston's essay is another consideration of this question (http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00502-6/S0273-0979-1994-00502-6.pdf http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-...).