"Something I've repeatedly found useful is that when debugging and you have a conjecture, not only look for evidence that a correlation/causation is present; but also look for evidence that it isn't."
In my opinion, the absolute, utter core essence of science can be expressed simply as "Always be trying to prove yourself wrong." The human brain is extremely biased in the other direction, and it's darned good at proving itself correct. It can prove itself correct in absurdly powerful ways. Always be fighting it, always be looking for ways to prove yourself wrong. If you do it seriously, things like "the scientific method" will naturally fall out of your serious attempts and need not be surrounded by near-worship, whereas no amount of worshipfully-following a checklist of the "scientific method" without the true effort to prove yourself wrong will produce truth; the human brain is far more powerful than the "scientific method" or any such static methodology.
I have deliberately left the word 'theory' out of this post. This scientific mindset beyond that into engineering and any number of day-to-day activities.
What worked for me is findig someone who is not involved in your analysis but has an analytical background and understanding what you are working on, and asking him to prove that you are wrong. My experience is that the most analyst are happy to have an opportunity to prove that you are wrong and they are right.
Try to prove yourself wrong about believing it is better to be wrong all the time.
Insanity!
I agree with you for the most part. But there's a line. When it starts to destroy your personal identity and sense of self, you've crossed that line. Sometimes it's just better to be right and trust yourself.
Or not. That's zen, I think. Trying to have so much information about everything that you wind up overloading yourself with it and can't make heads or tails of it, because in every simple truth exists an infinite proof. Analysis paralysis!
Despite superficially resembling some self-referential paradoxes, if the heuristic can stand up to itself, it's not a paradox. You try to prove it wrong, and you fail, so you keep it, which, lo, is exactly what I've done. (Or perhaps more precisely, while it is not a perfect fit and I could quibble with details myself, it is the best one-sentence summary of true science in my opinion, and I'm familiar with most of the usual ones, and aware that I've only seen this variant in one or two other places even so.) No paradox, no contradiction, no insanity.
Alas, if you're looking for an excuse to tie either yourself or me up in some sophomoric philosophical conundrum, this doesn't do it. But there's no lack of such things if you look, so don't be disappointed. Keep on trucking. May I suggest Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid if you would like the industrial strength version rope, err, braid to tie yourself in?
I understand where you are coming from, but I'm not trying to engage you in a 'sophomoric' debate. I came to the existential philosophical argument from mathematics and the computer sciences, not the other way around. I started my interest in computing science through automating proof (mathematical and computational). I doubt you care, but it's more about looking at the big picture of software development versus the little picture. You can't build anything if you keep testing the first thing for every bug, including everything it was built with, including all the mathematics used to reason about it.
But I'm sure there are two ways to respond to my comment: pretend you know what you are talking about, or admit you could be wrong and care to engage me in a real conversation. I've been down the same road hundreds of times on the internet, and it is hard to find people to talk to about things and meet in some kind of scientific, logical middle. But if that's not your thing, oesn't bother me if all you came here for was to prove yourself right about the noble ethics of your science. At least I'm no longer trapping my mind in a paradox of it's own creation. (Or am I? I never really know).
Logic is very different from science, that's all I have to say. Rigor is for precision, not discovery.
"I understand where you are coming from, but I'm not trying to engage you in a 'sophomoric' debate."
Considering the entire rest of your message consists of you essentially trying to lord over me whatever superiority you seem to think you have, and not missing an opportunity to slide a snide comment in, which I'd also observe is consistent with your original post, I've come to the conclusion that the rest of your post belies this claim. You're being abrasive and abusive while trying to pretend to be so much more open minded.
No sale. I recognize that tactic and refuse to engage with it. I'm sticking with my original assessment; you're being too sophomoric to engage with, and I reject your attempts to psychology me into engaging with you in the presupposed frame of your superiority.
Apologies, I would not interpret receiving my post back to me in the same way (I do not think, I usually read my posts back to myself and pretend I am talking to myself to try to understand how another person may take it, which I realize is fairly biased given my potentially unique perspective on reality). Human socialization is very difficult for me.
In my opinion, the absolute, utter core essence of science can be expressed simply as "Always be trying to prove yourself wrong." The human brain is extremely biased in the other direction, and it's darned good at proving itself correct. It can prove itself correct in absurdly powerful ways. Always be fighting it, always be looking for ways to prove yourself wrong. If you do it seriously, things like "the scientific method" will naturally fall out of your serious attempts and need not be surrounded by near-worship, whereas no amount of worshipfully-following a checklist of the "scientific method" without the true effort to prove yourself wrong will produce truth; the human brain is far more powerful than the "scientific method" or any such static methodology.
I have deliberately left the word 'theory' out of this post. This scientific mindset beyond that into engineering and any number of day-to-day activities.