[foldr]

I didn't mean it as a dig at philosophy for being simple. But I think it's true that there is less "essential technical material" to cover in philosophy. There's no equivalent to spending 3 months practicing solving differential equations.

>I believe studying the history in physics impedes understanding, because it builds up mistaken ideas that become hard to tear down.

This can be true in some cases of course, but there are also good ideas that get forgotten about or become unfashionable. And without studying the history of the discipline, you will often end up rejecting straw man versions of historical ideas rather than the ideas themselves.