Post #1996810

I've heard so many versions of this story in my career: "We stopped for [another part of our party] so they could [pray, tend a memorial, do a ritual] and that's when we found the specimen we had been looking for all day and I just think that's so beautiful and cool" No field worker has ever told me they think this is any different from the classic [Take A Piss: Find El Dorado] effect. When you stop actively looking and do something else that forces you to take extra time in the area, that's often when you find the thing of interest. But what's interesting is field workers repeat these stories far more than the "then I tripped over it" stories. They have a lot of appeal. These experiences appeal to the values of field scientists who often wish to believe their work respects local culture and hope their work is useful to locals to the place they're working: a place with a different cultural/religious/philosophical backdrop from the scientist's home. I think of science field workers whenever I see office workers on the fedi talking about how every philosophy other than the one they're into this week is ridiculous because they heard of this thing called science in year 10: it's a universal trump card for all arguments that you just have to mention by name and it automatically makes everyone else's point of view wrong and silly.