Issue4 [Jet小姐]第七次作业

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Issue 4 "No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study."

In today's world, with the increasing success of interdisciplinary studies, some people believe that the outside knowledge and experience is the prerequisite for the significant advance of one study. In my opinion, however, I think that the importance of the knowledge and experience brought in by outsiders varies under different circumstances.

First of all, the knowledge and experience, brought in by the outsiders, plays a crucial role in contributing to the success of some studies, especially the ones which entails the cooperation with other studies. A study is at a better position to success, if some parts of it could be done more professionally with the help of outsiders. An concrete example is the modern study of dam constructing which necessitates the studies of topography, geological and meteorology, for it is impossible to construct a dam without any study mentioned above. Before a dam is constructed, we need topography to determine the vicinity of the river and its tributary; we need geography which is important for the solidity for the foundation; we also need meteorology to know the annual precipitation. It is nearly impossible to build a solid dam without any of the study mentioned before.

However, the outside knowledge and experience is not always indispensable, for there are other factors which could also help advance one single study significantly. The two dominate decisive factors are firm grasp of the "inside" knowledge of the study of and good lucks.  The former one is the prerequisite to seize the opportunity for potential advancement while the latter one serves as the catalyst. Numerous great advancements of any single scientific study were actually triggered by some unexpected "accidents", and those great minds who possess a deep understanding of the subjects manage to interpret the unknown mechanism lies in the phenomena. The discovery of X-ray and penicillin are great examples of these "happy accidents" leading to significant advancement in science in which outside knowledge and experience doesn't contribute much.

Also, it is quite unusual to introduce the outside knowledge and experience to some fundamental studies such as mathematics and philosophy, and they are considered especially suitable for serving as providers of knowledge rather than receivers of knowledge. Despite the absence of outsider's knowledge, the success of mathematics is well illustrated by these outstanding advancements of other studies which relied heavily on the mathematics, such as physics, computer science, economics, and so on.

Overall, the outside knowledge and experience may be of great importance for the advancement of one study in some cases, however, in other occasion, comprehensive grasp of inside knowledge and some good luck are the main contributors.