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IlyaShpitser comments on The Inefficiency of Theoretical Discovery - Less Wrong Discussion
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No, these are all spot-on criticisms (but I don't think they are specific to theoretical research). I certainly agree that many problems of mainstream academia can be solved via the older patronage model, or perhaps even the newer crowdsourcing model.
I guess it is not clear to me that the failures in the OP's list are due to a structural fault, or due to more excusable issues, like:
(a) "the scholarship coordination problem" (stuff gets forgotten and rediscovered over and over again, people don't read other disciplines, etc.)
(b) the standard exponential search for insight
Yeah, as I said to joaolkf, I think my title was misleading: I wasn't trying to contrast theoretical research with empirical research, but merely to look at these inefficiencies in the context of theoretical research, since that's what MIRI does.
And you're probably right that for any given example of apparently unnecessary delay in progress, it can be pretty hard to tell which inefficiencies deserve the most blame.