PSA to newbies: There's nothing wrong with being wrong

[Mark Knowles]

In the end, you have to ask yourself why you're attracted to the VMS, and what you hope to accomplish in exploring it. And understand that others have very different reasons, and bring very different backgrounds to the table. Go ahead, be wrong. There's no successful person who hasn't failed many, many times.

I thoroughly agree with your central thesis that we are all obviously wrong sometimes and we should be aware of that.

I have certainly changed my mind signficantly on the basis of someone else's opinion regarding the Voynich, though I think most people would disagree with that person's opinion, which exemplifies the level on disagreement regarding the manuscript.

You say:

"As far as I'm concerned, there's a special place in hell for any teacher who's willing to beat the curiosity, creativity, or genuine love of learning out of a student."

I doubt that teacher felt that was what they were doing.

I am not sure that the following will be the case.

"the slow-moving, painstaking, un-glamourous bottom-up approach that's likely to eventually solve it"

The hard thing is that whilst we may or may not be wrong it can be hard to know who is right. You refer to: "people more knowledgeable than me". This is problematic as when it comes to Voynich research identifying such people is unclear. Only time will tell us who those people are, I think. Some people can clearly be more knowledgeable about very specific points, but when it comes to a broader understanding it is very much up to debate who us right and who wrong.

I don't agree when you say:

"I highly recommend you share your idea early on, and be upfront about how rough your idea is."

I think it is important to flesh out a theory before presenting it.

Anyway on any or all of these points I acknowledge that I could be wrong.