I think this thing is the key: > "As an independent researcher, you don’t have those constraints, so you can focus on creating whatever artifacts you think wil

I think this thing is the key: > "As an independent researcher, you don’t have those constraints, so you can focus on creating whatever artifacts you think will best reach your target audience (which might also mean academic papers, by the way!). I was mildly afraid of GitHub when I started, but I learned that open source developers use GitHub repositories for discussions, so I published some of my work that way. (A few other examples I like: Nicky Case publishes her ideas as games, and Michael Nielsen and Andy Matuschak are writing about quantum computing in an interactive readable format designed to improve retention.)" We can redefine progress. Current academia is conservative, at least when it comes to what counts as work and progress, what as a distraction (sadly, almost all didactics and outreach counts as "distraction" for researchers). Personally, after (kind of) leaving academia, I can focus much more on various media that wouldn't be recognized.