ISSUE87 初学者比专家更能产生新发现【求拍，有拍必回】

爱上千年的猫UID: 2476232

TOPIC: ISSUE87 - "In any field of inquiry, the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important discoveries."
WORDS: 583
TIME: 00:40:00
DATE: 2010-3-21 11:25:53

Is beginner more likely to make important discoveries than the experts in any field of inquiry as the speaker asserts? I'm afraid history has already proved it is not necessarily the case. I do admit beginners have make some important discoveries accidentally. However, most of the significant discoveries are made by experts because of their accumulated experiences and knowledge.

To begin with, we should define what kind of people can be called "beginners". If we define them as students who just start to learn knowledge of certain field, I do not believe he or she can make important discoveries. Because they lack enough knowledge and thoughtful ideas about what should be researched and how to conduct the researches. But if we define "beginners" as those who have already gained some amount of knowledge in certain field but just started to research in specific direction, I believe there is chance that they can make important discovery. The only reason is that they are not trapped in the idiomatic thought patterns. They tend to use different methods, which are usually discarded by experts, when doing researches. However, these methods occasionally will be the most proper way to certain problems. Thus, the beginner may discover something that experts haven't come up with for many years.

But the above case is rare compared to the general cases. If we pay attention to the winners of every year Nobel Prize, we can easily find that most of the winners are experts in certain fields rather than beginners. To make valuable discoveries, one should first have sufficient background information in that field so as to make them sensitive to anything unfamiliar, which can turn out to be a new discovery probably. Besides knowledge, one also has to be experienced that he or she can use proper research methods to look into the unfamiliar phenomena. Only when the two conditions are satisfied, we can expect him or her making important discoveries.

The example of great physicists Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity and develop the theory of gravitation, illustrate the point. It is said that Newton was occasionally hit by a fallen apple when he was sitting behind the apple tree. Then he started to inquire why such thing would happen and conducted many researches as well as established various models to prove his presuppositions. At last, he came up with the theory of gravitation, which is a landmark in the history of physics. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize, he said, "I can make this discovering because I was standing on the shoulders of a group of giants of science." He attributed his success to the previous knowledge developed by former scientists. We can imagine if that apple hit someone who is only a beginner as we defined, he may not make such important discovery but rather complained about a bad luck. In short, great discoveries are more likely to make by those who have sufficient background knowledge and experienced in researching methods. And the likelihood would be even higher if one does not limit himself in the previous experience or theories.

To sum up, the beginner in any field of inquire is not likely to make many important discoveries, since they lack of knowledge and experience and can only rely on occasions. Experts who is supported by their sufficient background information and rich in experience are likely to discover new phenomena and theories as long as their do not limit themselves in the idiomatic patterns of thinking.