People disagree about to what degree formal methods will be effective/quick enough to arrive. I’d like to point out that Paul Christiano, one of the most well-known proponents of more non-formal thinking & focus on existing ML-methods, still has a very strong traditional math/CS background - (i.e. Putnam Fellow, a series of very solid math/CS papers). His research methods/thinking is also very close to how theoretical physicists might think about problems.
Even a nontraditional thinker like EY did very well on math contests in his youth.
People disagree about to what degree formal methods will be effective/quick enough to arrive. I’d like to point out that Paul Christiano, one of the most well-known proponents of more non-formal thinking & focus on existing ML-methods, still has a very strong traditional math/CS background - (i.e. Putnam Fellow, a series of very solid math/CS papers). His research methods/thinking is also very close to how theoretical physicists might think about problems.
Even a nontraditional thinker like EY did very well on math contests in his youth.