Tetrapetalones ruminations, trials and tribulations

TLDR: The tetrapetalones were pursued for well over a decade by numerous research groups as discussed by the authors, and their many failures caused them to revise their strategy eight times, but they still developed valuable methods and gained important strategic insights from their trials and tribulations.

Abstract: The tetrapetalones were pursued for well over a decade by numerous research groups. Herein, we detail our motivations and findings, which we imagine are very different from the many others who tackled this extremely challenging problem. In this chapter, we explain how our many failures caused us to revise our strategy eight times. Although we failed to reach the genuine natural product, we hope the reader will conclude that we nevertheless developed several valuable methods and that we gained important strategic insights from our trials and tribulations. At the very least, we can emphatically state that we developed a great appreciation of the wonderful ways in which our chemistry community is interconnected, and the great benefit we all enjoy from one another's achievements.