This was a helpful response, thank you. The concept of a working hypothesis is unfamiliar to me and I'm curious about the practical utility of them, which leads me to more questions like: By what sort of process does the existence of a working hypothesis enable research? To what extent would said research be more difficult to do without a working hypothesis? To the extent that a working hypothesis is used in public communication with non-scientists about a given topic, why is it so? So I will investigate these things and look for resources to learn more.
This was a helpful response, thank you. The concept of a working hypothesis is unfamiliar to me and I'm curious about the practical utility of them, which leads me to more questions like: By what sort of process does the existence of a working hypothesis enable research? To what extent would said research be more difficult to do without a working hypothesis? To the extent that a working hypothesis is used in public communication with non-scientists about a given topic, why is it so? So I will investigate these things and look for resources to learn more.