[tdehnel]

The “oh this sticks” part is only ever interesting precisely because it doesn’t conform to the pre existing theory.

You cannot even make an observation without theories baked in:

- Normally these things do X

- My senses or instruments are detecting reality accurately

- This thing I’m measuring will result in something interesting etc

[s1artibartfast]

This is only true from the perspective of developing new theories for why are things happen. Of course new theories arise from other theories.

It's not true for Discovery in general. New phenomenon can be created and observed without any theory for why they occur, either before or after observation

[tdehnel]

You can't even observe something without theories. For example:

- I need to observe here and not anywhere else

- I can reliably interpret my senses/the instrumentation is working correctly

- Objects of this type normally behave in X way, because of Y

- etc

Think of it a different way. You can come up with a theory without any observation whatsoever. Black holes, for example, were conjectured well before they were observed.