

13 world class mathematicians on doing mathematical research - ypk
http://compmath.wordpress.com/about/5-doing-matheamtical-research/

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ypk
My favorite part is from Ed Witten, a leading theoretical physicist, and also
a Fields’ Medalist, who replied:

“There isn’t a clear task. If you are a researcher you are trying to figure
out what the question is as well as what the answer is.

You want to find the question that is sufficiently easy that you might be able
to answer it, and sufficiently hard that the answer is interesting. You spend
a lot of time thinking and you spend a lot of time floundering around.”

~~~
jackchristopher
I find the same thing true. Problem solving is me cycling through questions
until I ask the right one. The question I start with is always either too
specific or too general to narrow my search. But after enough iterations, the
right one trickles through.

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10ren
The last guy says you have to start with an intuition, and then prove it.

But I think you can start with the proof, and an intuition can come to you
along the way. It's just that it probably won't be about _that_ proof.

