[Corpora-List] "Cargo cult" NLP?

[John F Sowa]

On 4/11/2014 11:01 AM, Noah A Smith wrote:
> I understand and even share your impatience with theoretical work

I am not opposed to theoretical work.  On the contrary, good theories
can be extremely valuable for engineering projects.  In fact, some
great theoretical advances were motivated by engineering problems.

> What time limit shall we set on demonstrating usefulness of a
> theoretical idea in applications...

None.  Instead, I would recommend some advice I heard in a lecture
by Richard Hamming many years ago:

Paraphrase from a lecture by RH:
> When you're beginning a research project, the first thing you should
> do is to draft the first page of the report in which you present the
> final results.  Then ask yourself:  "If I saw that paper in a journal
> with somebody else's name at the top, would I bother to read it?"
>
> If the answer is no, look for another topic.

John

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