7 ms·
This post resonated with me strongly. Yes, resigning sounds like the obvious best choice. I hope it works out well! I can certainly understand why Prof. Stein
by raphlinus 8y ago
This post resonated with me strongly. Yes, resigning sounds like the obvious best choice. I hope it works out well!
I can certainly understand why Prof. Stein doesn't want to trash his colleagues, but I'll come out and say it: if academia wasn't completely dysfunctional, it would find a way to support this work.
For my own work (which is nowhere nearly as academically relevant as CoCalc and Sage) I'm planning on doing it myself without worrying too much about funding. I can use a combination of savings, random consulting gigs, Patreon, etc. I can imagine doing more "company" kinds of things, but only to the extent it supports the work. This is not an easy problem, and again I wish Prof. Stein well.
- selimthegrim 8y agoIf Jim Simons wouldn’t play ball it’s hardly only academia that’s implicated
- raphlinus 8y agoThis is true. The philanthropy scene is probably one of the few areas that has even more screwed-up incentives than academia.
- hopler 8y agoJim Simons doesn't understand open source and open access, because the source of his $15Billion net worth (proprietary hedge fund strategy) depends on him not understanding it. And also perhaps because he doesn't understand software very well. He could have made Magma free for everyone, but instead he bought a license only for his chosen elites to use. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10175563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10175563