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comment by Wed7pm
Wed7pm  ·  4620 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: You and Your Research, by Richard Hamming
That was an interesting read, thanks.

I saved some extracts:

"Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. [...]

What you want to do [when talking to people about your work] is get that critical mass in action; 'Yes, that reminds me of so and so,' or, 'Have you thought about that or this?' When you talk to other people, you want to get rid of those sound absorbers who are nice people but merely say, 'Oh yes,' and to find those who will stimulate you right back. [...]

If you read all the time what other people have done you will think the way they thought. If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what a lot of creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one. So yes, you need to keep up. You need to keep up more to find out what the problems are than to read to find the solutions."





AndreasBWagner  ·  4617 days ago  ·  link  ·  
"Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well."

There was a study concluding that the left-wing brain tolerates ambiguity better. This may in part explain why science is dominated by the left (only 6% of scientists in the US are republicans).

"Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain": http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-sci-politics10sep1...

"Only Six Percent Of Scientists Are Republicans: Pew Poll": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/10/only-six-percent-of...

Wed7pm  ·  4617 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Thanks for those links! Their arguments are certainly interesting. I'm not sure about the left/right-wing one: it doesn't explain how being fast at recognising visual differences has anything to do with the way someone might vote. And it doesn't link to the study, either, which always makes me wonder if they're spinning something :)

But the Pew Survey one: wow, that was surprising. The survey summary shows that the percentage of scientists who identify as Democrat goes down if you look at those who are working not in universities but in private industry (where it's just under the rate found in the general public; see quote below). But for the overall rate to be only 6% Republican: that's so low and so weird!

http://people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-poli... From the section 'Scientists and Politics': Overall, 52% of the public identifies as Democratic or leans Democratic, while 35% identifies as Republican or leans Republican. Majorities of scientists working in academia (60%), for non-profits (55%) and in government (52%) call themselves Democrats, as do nearly half of those working in private industry (47%).