Question the Question

The same is true in a number of areas in which I have worked. In general, if people in a field have bogged down on questions that seem very hard, it is a good idea to ask whether they are really working on the right questions. Often some other question is not only easier to answer but actually more interesting! (One drawback of this trick is that it often gets people angry. An academic who has spent years on a hard problem is rarely grateful when you suggest that his field can be revived by bypassing it).

-- Paul Krugman

It is astonishing what foolish things a man thinking alone can come temporarily to believe.

--John Maynard Keynes

Both quotes via How I Work by Paul Krugman.