timelets

If a research experiment were well defined, it would be altogether unnecessary to perform it. For the experimental arrangements to be well defined, the outcome must be known in advance; otherwise the procedure cannot be limited and purposeful. The more unknowns there are and the newer a field of research is, the less well defined are the experiments.
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And if after years we were to look back upon a field we have worked in, we could no longer see or understand the difficulties present in that creative work. The actual course of development becomes rationalized and schematized. We project the results into our intentions; but how could it be any different? We can no longer express the previously incomplete thoughts with these now finished concepts.

Cognition modifies the knower so as to adapt him harmoniously to his acquired knowledge.

-- Ludwik Fleck, Genesis and Development of a scientific fact.

...imagine the instant of suspense before a catapult hits the target, or a pulley system lifts a huge column, or before the water finally rushes through the conduits and an aqueduct is inaugurated after years of work — perhaps hope is the quintessential virtue of an engineer.

SERAFINA CUOMO. A Roman Engineer's Tales. The Journal of Roman Studies. Vol. 101 (2011), pp. 143-165. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41724876