I am a frequent visitor to The Oil Drum website. At the top of the main page there is always a random quote from some famous person that conveys words of wisdom.

I saw a great one today from Matt Simmons, who was a former investment banker turned petroleum analyst. He was very well respected in his field (and even moreso among Peak Oil proponents, itself a very controversial "theory" according to some people).

At the October 2006 ASPO-USA Conference...

Theory of Personal Theories

Pertaining to the Physics Forums policy of "no personal theories" and why there have been so many allowed in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster thread in the Nuclear Engineering forum.

I can't speak for those who run Physics Forums but perhaps there is a distinction between different kinds of theories.

The "no personal theories" policy may be aimed primarily at scientific theories of nature (e.g....