Where Do Research Problems Come From?

Re:Where Do Research Problems Come From? by larsrc on Sunday May 01, 2022 @01:18PM (#31226751)

How is that even a problem? Ideas bubble into my head much faster than I have the time or ability to work on them. Granted, most of them are crap, but that's because most of them are outside of my field of expertise.

As for usefulness, I seem to remember that it was the father of category theory who on his deathbed said, "I can die happy, knowing that my research will never have any practical applications". Now it's the basis for most type systems.

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Re:Where Do Research Problems Come From? by Ar-Curunir on Sunday May 01, 2022 @03:52PM (#31228081)

One of the hardest parts of doing good research is figuring out what a good question is. “Good” here encompasses a lot of things, such as

* is this an interesting problem to me?

* is this an interesting problem for my students?

* is this an interesting problem for the community?

* codes my team have the skill set to solve this problem?

* is this problem even within the reach of existing techniques?

* if not, what are the intermediate steps required to get there?

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Re:Where Do Research Problems Come From? by chrisseaton on Sunday May 01, 2022 @04:02PM (#31228158)

> Granted, most of them are crap

Well lol there you go. He probably wants good ideas not crap ones.

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