http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2007/10/14/common-sense/ Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:12:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2007/10/14/common-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-85300 Beemer Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:14:33 +0000 http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2007/10/14/common-sense/#comment-85300 Of course, the flip side is that sometimes, outsiders really do have almost no chance of understanding what they're talking about, because the high barrier to entry reflects the difficulty of understanding the important ideas. I think the tenured professor mocking the new idea isn't as pathological as it may appear, because if you take into consideration all the cranks and whatnot, 99% of the time the "radical new theories" are just nonsense. It's only in hindsight that a revolutionary idea seems obvious. Of course, the flip side is that sometimes, outsiders really do have almost no chance of understanding what they’re talking about, because the high barrier to entry reflects the difficulty of understanding the important ideas. I think the tenured professor mocking the new idea isn’t as pathological as it may appear, because if you take into consideration all the cranks and whatnot, 99% of the time the “radical new theories” are just nonsense. It’s only in hindsight that a revolutionary idea seems obvious.

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