Ups and Downs
Mar. 4th, 2011 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowOn the research front, the last week has been a roller-coaster ride.
Last Friday, I was pretty sure I saw the shape of the answer to the prisms problem. All that remained was to confirm the argument, and then work out the computational details.
Sunday, I spotted a hole in the argument, which blew up the whole line of reasoning and put me pretty much back at square one. I no longer believed that I understood anything.
Monday, I thought of a new way to subdivide the problem. (Case I: already settled. Cases IIA-D: shouldn't be too hard. Cases IIIA-B: the tough ones.) That evening, I came up with an approach to IIIA which looked very promising.
Tuesday, I found another flaw in my reasoning, and that attack fizzled out. Despair again.
Wednesday, I thought of another way to go at IIIA. I spent Thursday developing it, and no mistakes have shown themselves. Today, I'll present the current situation to the research group.
I stand by my end-of-March forecast. (Ask me again in a couple of days, and I may say something different....)
Last Friday, I was pretty sure I saw the shape of the answer to the prisms problem. All that remained was to confirm the argument, and then work out the computational details.
Sunday, I spotted a hole in the argument, which blew up the whole line of reasoning and put me pretty much back at square one. I no longer believed that I understood anything.
Monday, I thought of a new way to subdivide the problem. (Case I: already settled. Cases IIA-D: shouldn't be too hard. Cases IIIA-B: the tough ones.) That evening, I came up with an approach to IIIA which looked very promising.
Tuesday, I found another flaw in my reasoning, and that attack fizzled out. Despair again.
Wednesday, I thought of another way to go at IIIA. I spent Thursday developing it, and no mistakes have shown themselves. Today, I'll present the current situation to the research group.
I stand by my end-of-March forecast. (Ask me again in a couple of days, and I may say something different....)
