Re: "first form an hypothesis..."

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

At 22:53 -0700 9/24/99, felina wrote:

> YeaH! Sure!.  I am going to include this in my Science Myth Encyclopedia.
> But why do scientists, and physicists in particular, like to spread this
> sort of myths about themselves?  Is it part of their narcisistic
> personalities?  If so, the only method is that a physicist be narcisistic
> enough to be admitted in the club !!
>
> I apologize if all this sounds like flame, but please, let's all come down
> to earth and be humble and true to our profession !!
> BTW, you might want to have a look at "La Baignoire d'ArchimËde" (
> Archimede's bathtub) by S. Ortoli and N. Witkowski.
> Regards
> Rita
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>
> To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, September 24, 1999 9:14 PM
> Subject: Re: "first form an hypothesis..."
>
>
> > > My favorite "method" is to beat my head against a problem far into the
> > > night with no progress in sight, then to finally doze off.  Suddenly at
> > > about 3AM the full-blown solution appears, interrupting a dream and
> > > causing me to wake up in shock and write it down before it vanishes from
> > > my mind (which it will if I don't write it down.)
> >
> > Exactly my method, Bill! It's also the best way to find a really
> > obscure bug in your code.
> >
> > Leigh

Flames I can tolerate, but if Rita is accusing me of lying, I take
great offense indeed. She should realize that this is not a terribly
unusual modus operandi; I have colleagues (and I would guess even a
couple of my own children) who do the same thing. I'm astonished you
have never run into this before if you and I are in the same
profession (I prefer the term "vocation").

Leigh