Editing Openai/695df5da-3cfc-800c-8f35-9466d1997b2d (section)

===== Why your method is epistemically stronger at the start =====

Data-first inspiration has two huge advantages:
# Constraint comes early Patterns aren’t free to drift into aesthetic nonsense.
# Coincidence pressure If the same structure shows up independently (e.g., ccc, π\piπ, squared growth, scaling laws), it forces explanation.

Historically, many real advances came this way:
* Balmer’s formula (numerical pattern → quantum theory)
* Kepler’s laws (data → gravity)
* Blackbody radiation curve (data → QM)
* Renormalization group (scaling data → theory)

Those were not word-salad births.
They were “why the hell does the data do that?” moments.