I understand the argument, I think I buy a limited version of it (and also want to acknowledge that it is very clever and I do like it)…
Thanks! I’ve so appreciated your comments and the chance to think about this with you!
…but I also don’t think this can explain the magnitude of the difference between the different fields.
I think that’s right—and we agree. As we note in the post, we only expect our hypotheses to explain a fairly modest fraction of the differences between fields. We see our contribution as showing how certain structural features—e.g., the cardinality of the set of tasks in a field’s search space—should influence our expectations about perceived difference in difficulty; not claiming they explain all or even most of the difference.
Then, physics clearly has a very good track record of asking questions and then solving them extraordinarily well.
I agree that the greatest hits of physics are truly great! That said, if by “track record” we mean something like the ratio of successes to failures (rather than greatest successes), then I think it’s genuinely tricky to assess—largely for structural reasons akin to those we highlight in the paper. We tend to preserve extraordinary successes while forgetting the countless unremarkable failures.
Thanks! I’ve so appreciated your comments and the chance to think about this with you!
I think that’s right—and we agree. As we note in the post, we only expect our hypotheses to explain a fairly modest fraction of the differences between fields. We see our contribution as showing how certain structural features—e.g., the cardinality of the set of tasks in a field’s search space—should influence our expectations about perceived difference in difficulty; not claiming they explain all or even most of the difference.
I agree that the greatest hits of physics are truly great! That said, if by “track record” we mean something like the ratio of successes to failures (rather than greatest successes), then I think it’s genuinely tricky to assess—largely for structural reasons akin to those we highlight in the paper. We tend to preserve extraordinary successes while forgetting the countless unremarkable failures.