Lessons in SoftwareEngineering or HolyWars can perhaps be learned from studying other technology and science disciplines.
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Dr. Atkins - A diet system that is contrarian to the low-fat mantra, but seems more effective in actual studies.
- The thing that makes Atkins' diet work (and, once controlled for, renders it less effective than other diets) is that he observed that people would decide they wanted (e.g.) steak, and order it with low-fat, high carb options like mashed potato; they'd then eat as many calories as they would have done in a high fat diet. By banning carbs, he gets those people to just eat the steak, thus acting as a restricted calorie diet. Put another way; he saw the disparity between what people said they were doing, and what they did, and worked out a way to bring the two back into line with each other.
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The Apollo moon orbiter idea guy (forget his name) - Proposed early on that a moon orbiter stage be used rather than a direct landing, but it was dismissed as too complicated at the time.
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Galileo - Contradicted official church doctrine about Earth's place in the universe/solar system.