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> comes up with a lot of magic numbers that are there presumably because other alternatives were tried and those happened to work.

The process of experimentation is what makes Computer Science "science"!



A central part of experimentation in scientific fields is to document the experiments in a very comprehensive way, including

- which other options you also tried, but which failed

- write down hypotheses that explain the worse results of the other options

- write down hypotheses why the chosen options gives better results

- ideally formulate testable predictions that these hypotheses imply

- etc.

Simply saying "other alternatives were tried and those happened to work" is not science, but tinkering around combined with magical thinking.




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