there is a reason why my brainstorming sessions naturally last at most 3 hours (and often 2 hours). admittedly, the ebb and flow of ideas follows my caffeine levels.
there is also the inclination towards bad or crazy ideas: the longer i think about a problem, the more i want to solve it and hence, the more likely i will try crazy ideas that shouldn't work.
this morning i thought about the cases i know and whether it would be fruitful to push the idea further. in the end, having no other ideas, i did, and i completed my thoughts on paper:
"try this, maybe that.
if there's any justice in the world,
then this property should follow,
and by adapting someone else's theory ..
.. it might,
just might,
give us enough leverage that we can prove something close to what we want."
in other words, some sessions i spend, forming strategies and conditional mathematics. indeed, sometimes it is easier to edit a paper than to write one; similarly, it can also be easier to adjust a bad plan than to think of a perfect plan from scratch ..
.. well, at least for mere mortals like me. maybe you, my readers and colleagues, fare better in the world of ideas. \-: as for why it's helpful, sometimes you need an idea on a rainy day, and you'd rather just check details, so this makes portable the research process.
as for why all of this came to mind: just earlier i was running. as i was scaling the top of a hill, i suddenly thought:
wait. that's idiotic;
that can't possibly work.
angrily, i made it to the hilltop at a good speed but as i was cruising downhill ..
oh, wait. there is that property left.
maybe it might pan out.
so, a word to the wise, from the unwise: conditional mathematics is useful, only to a point. if you cannot see far, you might just make yourself go crazy with doubts.
No comments:
Post a Comment