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In case anyone thinks this is an isolated idea, I also left academia and the scientific laboratories to work independently. While the exact reasons for doing s
by kxyvr 8y ago
In case anyone thinks this is an isolated idea, I also left academia and the scientific laboratories to work independently. While the exact reasons for doing so are multifaceted, I'll echo that there's a lot of questionable, finely parsed research that I disagree with.
Alright, so how does it work? For me, I'm on contract consulting for a few months a year and the rest of the time I spend doing research. Now, there are number of difficulties with this approach. Namely, it helps to work in a field that generates enough money to support myself for the rest of the year. Though it varies by field, I believe this has been far easier for me since I carry a Ph.D, which adds credibility on contracts. Second, I don't get to simply do research the rest of the year since it's also important to do product and client development to stay in business. Third, while consulting can pay well, it's also volatile. I've been in business full time for more than five years, so it has worked well enough, but I probably would not operate in the same manner if I had a family. That said, I've been able to look into and master many things that I would have never been able to while working in a traditional academic environment.
In short, I've been able to make this work by consulting to buy back my time. I do think there are other models to making this work and if anyone else has been successful doing independent research I'd love to hear how.
- btrettel 8y agoGreat comment. I'm a final year PhD student right now who is planning on doing something similar. If you wouldn't mind, could you email me at the address in my profile here? I'm interested in learning more about your approach. In addition to consulting I'm also considering the following: - being an expert witness (a type of consulting) - translating papers and books (worked for Julian Barbour during the cold war, but I'm not qualified and don't suspect there is great demand) - being a lecturer or adjunct at a university (In my field it's about 10K USD per class best I can tell. My goal with this would be to help smooth out your income if consulting is too volatile. Also gives you access to university resources.) - writing technical books (unlikely to be enough on its own, but I'm looking more into people who have done this) - teaching workshops/short courses (Works for Edward Tufte. If books can be pirated easily then it might be best to give away the PDFs for free, sell hard copies, and make most of the money with workshops.) - science journalism (probably a dead end) - open source (D. Richard Hipp seems to have an interesting approach) - donations/crowdfunding (probably not sufficient but worth looking more closely at) - small grants (my advisor recommended this)