Researchers look here: How To Choose a Good Scientific Problem by Alon (2009)

Stumbled upon this excellent article that discussed how one can choose a good scientific problem, published in Cell Press in 2009. The link to the full paper is through its DOI at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2009.09.013

These are some of the interesting ideas that were included in the paper.

• Classifying research problem in terms of ease and interest.

On the left figure, you can see that the Y axis is the interest axis, where knowledge gain is higher when interest is higher. X axis is the hard-easy axis. The figure on the right suggest that we shouldn't try to kill ourselves, all the time. The orange bit is about suitable for the postdoc. If you are a seasoned researcher, you should probably be trying things on the left top, i.e. large gain in knowledge and hard stuff. This is where the best scientists should endeavour to work at.

• Know thyself

If I was the only person on earth, which of these problems would I work on?

Only we can answer the question about what truly represent us. So the question about is a good one.

• The summary

Take your time (recall the 3 Month Rule) to find among the problems available the one that is most feasible and most interesting to you rather than to others. A good project draws upon your skills to achieve self-expression.

This is the summary of the paper.

I strongly recommends this to the aspiring researchers and academics.