Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered - New York Times

Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered - New York Times: "Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered
By GINA KOLATA
IN 1996, Rakesh Vohra, a professor at Northwestern University, and his colleague Dean Foster published 'A Randomized Rule for Selecting Forecasts,' a paper in the journal Operations Research. It illustrated how a random investor could outperform a group of professional stock pickers simply by following a 'buy and hold' investment strategy.
It was important research, the authors believed, until they learned that the same discovery had been made at least 16 times since the 1950's. And no one, Dr. Vohra said, ever realized they were not doing original work. "