Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Personally, I don't care if you use your feet for braking or if you use neolithic tools for taking your bike apart but you your ideas on science are way off base. I happen to do science every day. My job is to solve problems in ways no one else has done before. However, I have to know how other people have approached a problem in the past or else I'm just repeating the same mistakes that they have made and I'm going no where in terms of science. You don't start at first principles on every problem or nothing would ever get solved. In science...at least the science I practice...you build on the work of others and you acknowledge the fact that others have gone before you. In other words, if someone says you should probably do it this way, you might want to listen to them. You can do it your own way but you are going to go down a whole bunch of blind alleys before you discover that the way the 'experts' said to do it is probably a pretty good idea.
huh... why didn't I think of the argument from first principles? I mean I studied a good bunch of philosophy in college.
That's what really bugs me the most about this whole thing. The OP is trundling along on his merry way working out for himself (the way we all do) what is the best way to operate X (where, in context, X is something to do with a bicycle). And the rest of us despair because it appears that he's stuck on something we've moved beyond, for various reasons. It's like standing over someone trying to make a fire by whacking two stones together to make a spark.. And you've got a perfectly good lighter in your hand, and you're holding it out to him because you just KNOW that if he doesn't get that fire lit in a few minutes he'll be devoured by wolves. And he says "bah! I don't want to use that, I'm sure this will work!" And then it DOES work (Because it is bound to) and the wolves are kept at bay. And our little fire starter is sitting smugly next to his glowing fire with his rocks and says "See! I told you! Now, run along with your little fire box. I've got MY solution."
I just really hope he doesn't get devoured by wolves the NEXT time he tries to light a fire. Because, I don't like hearing about people getting devoured by wolves.