From a recent discussion I had with a friend at grad school.
Q: There’s definitely no shortage of results in theoretical computer science which are thought to be true but the field is far from proving. These are often mentioned in class and put in homeworks as things to think about in my class. If you could prove some of these results, it would be a great boon to people.
Me: Proving results at a research level is a process that’s more or less independent of the person who takes the job. It just takes time to construct a building, same with constructing a proof. If you want to make the construction quicker, tools are needed that are not immediately available but someone somewhere might have developed for some specialized process which may just happen to be applicable here. If I’m given a result where my tools are particularly applicable, I’d be able to get the answer quicker, otherwise it’s going to just take the same time as anyone else. The question is about who is willing to give the required amount of time. The only other option out, if forced, is to build a tool which hasn’t been developed yet. That will take its own time, but once ready, it will get the job done. I personally would just give appropriate time to things of my interest and use tools to get other things done forcefully.