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Feb 10, 2019 at 20:10 review Close votes
Feb 11, 2019 at 7:17
Dec 18, 2017 at 4:38 review Close votes
Dec 18, 2017 at 9:52
Nov 12, 2010 at 1:24 comment added Eric Tressler The best way is to persuade a colleague to work on it too, or to give it as homework to your students. That way you'll be sure.
Apr 28, 2010 at 18:47 comment added B. Bischof ask sufficiently general but probing questions on Math Overflow!!
Apr 27, 2010 at 21:30 comment added Kevin Buzzard My advisor Richard Taylor once told me that the best way to learn a subject was to find a problem in the area and work on it. A couple of years ago I mentioned this to a friend and he said that Taylor seemed to have modified his strategy: now he takes the hardest problem in the area, and solves it!
Apr 27, 2010 at 17:31 answer added Noah Snyder timeline score: 21
Apr 27, 2010 at 17:25 comment added Qfwfq Ok, I agree .
Apr 27, 2010 at 17:02 comment added Dan Ramras Somewhere (on this site, I think) someone made the point that the best problems to work on are ones which keep you learning new and useful material. If you follow this rule, Gowers comment is probably quite correct.
Apr 27, 2010 at 17:01 answer added Dan Ramras timeline score: 11
Apr 27, 2010 at 17:00 comment added Qfwfq @gowers: for someone who already has a permanent position!
Apr 27, 2010 at 16:09 answer added Pete L. Clark timeline score: 34
Apr 27, 2010 at 15:48 comment added gowers "If the other guy has already completed a certain amount of (say, not yet published) work on that specific topic, knowing this would help you to avoid waisting time to try to re-do something that has already been done (at least with the same methods)." I wouldn't underestimate the value of that kind of waste of time ...
Apr 27, 2010 at 15:47 answer added Pace Nielsen timeline score: 24
Apr 27, 2010 at 15:34 answer added Hailong Dao timeline score: 13
Apr 27, 2010 at 14:55 answer added Noah Snyder timeline score: 7
Apr 27, 2010 at 14:54 history edited Qfwfq CC BY-SA 2.5
added 29 characters in body
Apr 27, 2010 at 14:52 answer added Noah Snyder timeline score: 16
Apr 27, 2010 at 14:50 comment added Kevin Buzzard It's impossible to know if someone else is working on the same thing you're working on. I had a lucky escape recently: I gave a problem to a PhD student and someone spoke at a conference explaining how they had solved the problem, about 3 weeks later. Had this been 3 years later my student could well have been in some sort of trouble.
Apr 27, 2010 at 14:39 history asked Qfwfq CC BY-SA 2.5