I'm not sure I agree. One great strength of mathematics, perhaps the greatest, is that it can be very, very, very specific. By building the right vocabulary and choosing the proper abstractions, you can make it tractable to consider a question that is extremely specific. This increases the chance that it's never been asked before, without necessarly increasing the chance that you need more than a B.S. to tackle it.
Will the question and answer be interesting to more people than just you? I think that depends largely on the simplicity of the construction of the question, and the "beauty factor" of the answer.
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Date: 2009-02-18 02:44 am (UTC)I'm not sure I agree. One great strength of mathematics, perhaps the greatest, is that it can be very, very, very specific. By building the right vocabulary and choosing the proper abstractions, you can make it tractable to consider a question that is extremely specific. This increases the chance that it's never been asked before, without necessarly increasing the chance that you need more than a B.S. to tackle it.
Will the question and answer be interesting to more people than just you? I think that depends largely on the simplicity of the construction of the question, and the "beauty factor" of the answer.