Lemmings. Suppose we have an important subject whose practitioners are all relatively mediocre. Research from these people will correspondingly be mediocre. However, some of it will catch on - as always happens. Many will gravitate toward this line of thinking and propagate more research along these lines. It will become the mainstream mode of thinking. Then, after a long time, the ideas will not prove valid; they will be proved absolutely incorrect. What happens is that a new equally invalid idea will replace it, and it will catch on. The cycle repeats. The net result is this important subject will never progress, but will leap from one incorrect paradigm to another. There is such a subject in this world. You might justly think government - my preferred choice, but that is too obvious.
Random thoughts and used ideas