The Dunning-Kruger effect in Mathematics - my recent…
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The Dunning-Kruger effect in Mathematics - my recent example, do you have any lessons for others?
As an avid recreational mathematician, I recently read the Sum-Product conjecture disproof for reals on Arxiv.
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I wasted the time of moderators and myself by being a classic case of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
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I made the mistake that something obvious to me, which appeared to improve the result, was not in any further related papers I read and assumed (given I enjoy set theory in regards to infinities) that I had something new...
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I saw something considered so trivial it's not even mentioned in recent papers.
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It's trivial to create a set of reals which result in both the sum set and product set are maximized - which is (n(n+1))/2
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Although my method sets out rules to create an uncountably large amount of sets that maximize both the sum set and product set I very much doubt that adds anything interesting.
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Thankfully, I eventually found the error and won't be wasting more time on it.
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Do you have any lessons for others on how to avoid similar mistakes? Is it less likely Mathematics students/graduates make such mistakes?
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I think it would be nice to share advice or resources on the Dunning-Kruger time sinkhole.
​
​
​
#science
source
As an avid recreational mathematician, I recently read the Sum-Product conjecture disproof for reals on Arxiv.
​
I wasted the time of moderators and myself by being a classic case of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
​
I made the mistake that something obvious to me, which appeared to improve the result, was not in any further related papers I read and assumed (given I enjoy set theory in regards to infinities) that I had something new...
​
I saw something considered so trivial it's not even mentioned in recent papers.
​
It's trivial to create a set of reals which result in both the sum set and product set are maximized - which is (n(n+1))/2
​
Although my method sets out rules to create an uncountably large amount of sets that maximize both the sum set and product set I very much doubt that adds anything interesting.
​
Thankfully, I eventually found the error and won't be wasting more time on it.
​
Do you have any lessons for others on how to avoid similar mistakes? Is it less likely Mathematics students/graduates make such mistakes?
​
I think it would be nice to share advice or resources on the Dunning-Kruger time sinkhole.
​
​
​
#science
source
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