Dissonnace in Music and Research

Last weekend, I had a very hard time to keep myself awake during the Mahler 9 concert by CSO: it was very loud and unpleasant for me to appreciate. Today, I just learnt some math PhD students I once knew had quit as masters. Somehow them share some relation: the purpose to attending a live concert could be witnessing the mistakes for experienced patrons; and the purpose of research could also be the findings of failures. Even though some problem can be scooped, the later publication could still relect some innovative insignts, or interesting mistakes.

As the incompleteness theorem suggests, there will not be a once for all solution for successful research, and humans have to keep striding either quick or slow, and keep making failures. The dissonnace in our path supports us as well as the harmony.