(06-02-2025, 03:18 PM)eggyk wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I feel similarly to this honestly. I would love to sit there and test some of my showerthought induced hunches, but the chances are that even if it leads to something, it will lead to me being convinced I am right and the rest are wrong.
If you have these reflections, you already show a better grasp of confirmation bias and its implications than all Voynich solvers combined.
As for what to do... I had the same feelings when I started researching the MS many years ago. It's hard to give good advice because everyone's interests and motivations are different.
I would definitely advise to keep an eye on things people have said and published about the MS. This will give you a better idea of any problematic areas. Then you will become interested in something after a while, and you will have the drive and passion to dig into it and perhaps add to the research. Some things people say and repeat are based on old, flawed or incomplete research that could be added to or revised. Some things haven't really been looked into at all.
But again, this all depends on what motivates you. Some people find it interesting to focus for weeks at a time on just one word of the marginalia. Learning more about that won't necessarily bring us closer to a solution, but it might be a rewarding effort that can be built upon.
I tend to focus on such smaller tasks. Things that can be phrased as an answerable question. Where did swallowtail merlons appear before 1450? What are the defining features of the Zodiac's bull and can we find those in other manuscripts? Where do we find the phrase "so nim" in other sources and how is it used? Asking such questions almost guarantees that any result found is an actual result (that can still be disputed, of course) rather than speculation.
When it comes to the best way to actually solve the text... well, your guess is as good as mine.