It's a good articulation that informs one while working on complex stuff. Here's a recent example of this where the above advice came to mind while reading over this advice the other day (I believe someone linked it on HN)
A good way to stress-test this sort of false argument is to try to run the same argument without the initial assumption that X is false. If one can easily modify the argument to again lead to a contradiction, it shows the problem wasn’t with X – it was with the argument.
https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/be-sceptical-of....
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It's a good articulation that informs one while working on complex stuff. Here's a recent example of this where the above advice came to mind while reading over this advice the other day (I believe someone linked it on HN)