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Comment by agdpf | Hacker News Reader

>In which case you have to ask yourself, are you so brilliant that you’ve found an important topic that no one has considered yet, or have all the brilliant people already figured out that topic isn’t worthy of study?

Imagine how many inventions we would have missed if all inventors had shared your mindset.

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What? These are perfectly valid questions to be asking and do not inherently stop you from researching what you're working on.

I know some scientists that define their research direction by asking these questions first before pursuing an idea. Many great inventions like optogenetics or expansion microscopy came from this investigative strategy. It can help keep your resources and energy in check.

Both strategies work to some extent.

Some topics need a large investment to show anything at all.

Some topics show immediate results (good or bad).

Should we, for example, stop all activities in fusion research because so far nobody has shown that it will work and we already invested billions?

I think you’ve misinterpreted what I said. I’m not suggesting everyone is a fool, quite the opposite.

It’s just an important question to ask yourself.

The purpose of PHDs are to move human knowledge forward. You have to do an analysis of something that, in all likelihood, nobody has done before (or not enough to be considered settled).

But then your analysis has to be challenged as well. And the challenges should be published. Success or fail.

If you live in your own bubble the needle doesn't move forward.

He is not talking of a mindset. He is talking about making a reflection.

If you are the only one doing the work, why is it worth doing?

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