05-03-2024, 10:25 AM
I want to add a couple of observations to the phD and such discussions who maintain basically "we don't totally understand what's going on, and you guys are using too small of 'sample sets' for any of this to be real, or accurate, or perfect, or whatever..."
We do things and take advantage of things many times in life that we do not totally understand. Not having a total comprehension of something is not a prerequisite for successfully making use of it. Example: electricity (something I have some familiarity with) -- users of this commodity typically have no clue how it's generated, how transmitted to their house, etc etc but they can use it to power their oven and make (or their wife/gf/whatever) outstanding recipes for dinner.
A more technical and "magical" example is the one that some investors use known as "technical investors" who watch various rises and falls of the stock market and make money based on "technical factors" rather than supply/demand or a company's financial performance. Those guys are wizards; I have to look at a company's financials, market performance, macro economics (or bidenomics nowadays lol!) and a product's quality/innovations to decide where to invest. I can't make heads nor tails of "1000 day hi-low averages moving curve" or such mumbo jumbo. But those guys seem to do ok.
So yes, one can make a workable theory/approach without totally understanding it as a phD might want to understand. Let those guys keep on "researching" -- I am not in favor of paralysis by analysis. A good, sound plan today is better than a perfect one... well, someday.
Give me something useful to help me in my quest today, and if research finds something better tomorrow, I'll read up on that after I have returned from my day of shooting, so to speak!!
We do things and take advantage of things many times in life that we do not totally understand. Not having a total comprehension of something is not a prerequisite for successfully making use of it. Example: electricity (something I have some familiarity with) -- users of this commodity typically have no clue how it's generated, how transmitted to their house, etc etc but they can use it to power their oven and make (or their wife/gf/whatever) outstanding recipes for dinner.
A more technical and "magical" example is the one that some investors use known as "technical investors" who watch various rises and falls of the stock market and make money based on "technical factors" rather than supply/demand or a company's financial performance. Those guys are wizards; I have to look at a company's financials, market performance, macro economics (or bidenomics nowadays lol!) and a product's quality/innovations to decide where to invest. I can't make heads nor tails of "1000 day hi-low averages moving curve" or such mumbo jumbo. But those guys seem to do ok.
So yes, one can make a workable theory/approach without totally understanding it as a phD might want to understand. Let those guys keep on "researching" -- I am not in favor of paralysis by analysis. A good, sound plan today is better than a perfect one... well, someday.
Give me something useful to help me in my quest today, and if research finds something better tomorrow, I'll read up on that after I have returned from my day of shooting, so to speak!!