tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22301740.post2308972103652875260..comments2024-03-26T09:49:07.212-07:00Comments on The Scratching Post: How Innovation Works In Tobacco FermentingK T Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10259428595745509790noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22301740.post-57049923110275619202020-05-28T10:20:28.419-07:002020-05-28T10:20:28.419-07:00Great anecdotes, both.
I'll be blogging Tobac...Great anecdotes, both.<br /><br />I'll be blogging Tobacco II: Virginia Boogaloo as soon as my new set of seeds arrive.K T Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10259428595745509790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22301740.post-27878772386917368182020-05-28T09:03:43.233-07:002020-05-28T09:03:43.233-07:00Tim - Totally agree. I have vivid memories of the...Tim - Totally agree. I have vivid memories of the one experiment I did that worked exactly like I wanted on the first try. I spent days trying to figure out how I had actually messed up and then fooled myself into thinking it was right. I was never really comfortable reporting those results. <br /><br />On the other hand, Mrs Ohioan has the artist’s touch when she plans and runs experiments. They seem to work first time, every time. It would almost be enough to pi55 me off I wasn’t so crazy about her.Ohioan@Hearthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08650494620853971183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22301740.post-42920491019002670832020-05-28T08:46:45.807-07:002020-05-28T08:46:45.807-07:00As someone who is currently doing a lot of researc...As someone who is currently doing a lot of research and development work, I agree that trial and error is critical. Keep track of what you did and how it went so terribly, fatally wrong, but definitely get in there and try <i>something</i>). I have almost never had a project where I started with a plan, designed a process, built it, ran it, and had it work exactly as expected. When you are doing anything new, it is almost inevitable that the first attempt will be some variety of fiasco. As will the second, and likely the third, fourth, and fifth attempts. And without actually building it and seeing how it goes wrong, actually anticipating any of those failures is almost impossible.<br /><br />I constantly have this battle with my students. I will assign them a project, and they will start planning, and calculating, and trying to create models, and looking for advice from other people, and basically going into a state of analysis paralysis. They are so scared of the "error" part of "trial and error" that, left to their own devices, they will never get to the "trial" part. I keep telling them that of course the first tries are going to go cockeyed, because if we already knew for sure that it was going to work, <i>it wouldn't be research, now would it?</i> So I generally have to practically force them to put together something, <i>anything</i>, just so they can actually see what happens in the real world, figure out why it went pear-shaped <i>this</i> time, and actually make progress. <br /><br />So keep going ahead with your tobacco, and don't worry if you end up with a dozen failures, because as long as you learn from them, that is the path to ultimate success. tim eiselehttp://somethingscrawlinginmyhair.comnoreply@blogger.com