How to do Optimal Scientific Research, by DragonGod:
Create a LaTeX document summarizing your preliminary ideas
Share it on LessWrong for feedback
Create more LaTeX documents
???
Profit
One one hand, 1) and 2) pretty accurately reflect real research, except you’re usually sharing with your advisor/peers/etc. On the other hand, they’re the easy part :-)
This is technically true, but I’m writing papers on how to do research (as opposed to conducting the research itself), so I don’t see a problem with it?
It is not an empirical truth. It is at best a logical truth (and only do because of the axioms I choose). Maybe it is possible that there is an empirically optimal strategy—I doubt I’ll ever find it. The best I can do is show that if you accept some axioms, some specific strategy is optimal. The truth of optimality then is analytical rather than synthetic. I do not call what I’m doing truthseeking because of that.
How to do Optimal Scientific Research, by DragonGod:
Create a LaTeX document summarizing your preliminary ideas
Share it on LessWrong for feedback
Create more LaTeX documents
???
Profit
One one hand, 1) and 2) pretty accurately reflect real research, except you’re usually sharing with your advisor/peers/etc. On the other hand, they’re the easy part :-)
This is technically true, but I’m writing papers on how to do research (as opposed to conducting the research itself), so I don’t see a problem with it?
What do you think does “research” happen to be? A traditional idea of research is that it’s about seeking the truth.
Are you saying that whatever you are doing has some different goal?
What I’m doing is to devise an optimum strategy for truth seeking; I do not think that is in itself truth seeking.
Why not? Do you think the thesis that a specific strategy is the optimum strategy for truth seeking can’t be true in principle?
It is not an empirical truth. It is at best a logical truth (and only do because of the axioms I choose). Maybe it is possible that there is an empirically optimal strategy—I doubt I’ll ever find it. The best I can do is show that if you accept some axioms, some specific strategy is optimal. The truth of optimality then is analytical rather than synthetic. I do not call what I’m doing truthseeking because of that.