Everyone has a research style, says Arthur. If you think of a research problem as being like a medieval walled city, then a lot of people will attack it head on, like a battering ram. They will storm the gates and try to smash through the defenses with sheer intellectual power and brilliance. But Arthur has never felt that the battering ram approach was his strength. “I like to take my time as I think,” he says. “So I just camp outside the city. I wait. And I think. Until one day—maybe after I’ve turned to a completely different problem—the drawbridge comes down and the defenders say, ‘We
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