No, I’m making a different point that has nothing to do with status. The prior probability that you actually did come up with a grand unified theory that describes reality is pretty low, even for an actual trained physicist that is the top in her field. Given any one person has limited time and resources, the highest expected payoff thing to do is to NOT look for needles in haystacks but rather assume your new theory is wrong and go do something else. However if everyone takes this approach we will never have progress. So progress is dependant on some people at least acting arrogantly and with audacity to assume, contrary to reasonable priors, that they might actually be on to something and proceed as if they have a fighting chance of being right (despite decades of stagnation and thousands of failed attempts before them).
That is a fine point to make, but I think arrogance is not the right word for the virtue you’re describing. Arrogance is how other people might describe a person trying to uphold this virtue, and it’s also how a part of you might describe another part of you trying to uphold this virtue, and that’s the thing I’m claiming is about status.
No, I’m making a different point that has nothing to do with status. The prior probability that you actually did come up with a grand unified theory that describes reality is pretty low, even for an actual trained physicist that is the top in her field. Given any one person has limited time and resources, the highest expected payoff thing to do is to NOT look for needles in haystacks but rather assume your new theory is wrong and go do something else. However if everyone takes this approach we will never have progress. So progress is dependant on some people at least acting arrogantly and with audacity to assume, contrary to reasonable priors, that they might actually be on to something and proceed as if they have a fighting chance of being right (despite decades of stagnation and thousands of failed attempts before them).
That is a fine point to make, but I think arrogance is not the right word for the virtue you’re describing. Arrogance is how other people might describe a person trying to uphold this virtue, and it’s also how a part of you might describe another part of you trying to uphold this virtue, and that’s the thing I’m claiming is about status.
It is common for a word to have more than one meaning.