Theoretical physics needs a Journal of Seemed Like A Good Idea But In The End Don't Work, just to prevent other people from wasting their time.
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Replying to @physicsmatt
Like null results for dead-end theory? What kind of stuff would that contain/is anything like it published?
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Replying to @dangaristo
Theory ideas that are "this looks like it would work, but after you spend 3 months banging your head against the wall, you'll discover this non-obvious problem that makes the whole project uninteresting."
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Replying to @physicsmatt @dangaristo
Sometimes you wring a paper out of such ideas, but often you can't, and then someone else comes along and tries the same idea and wastes their time too.
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Replying to @physicsmatt
And nobody ever publishes/shares at conferences "we tried x, here's why it didn't work, because of z"?
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Replying to @dangaristo
Not that often; we like to talk about our successes instead.
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Replying to @physicsmatt
Hmm. Any examples where people _did_ publish that you have in mind?
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Here's a math example: "How not to prove the Poincaré conjecture" by John Stallings http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.32.3404&rep=rep1&type=pdf …
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