> This is the reason for the tenure system, to give true freedom to explore novel and future oriented work. Things that won't pay off for decades, if ever A lo

> This is the reason for the tenure system, to give true freedom to explore novel and future oriented work. Things that won't pay off for decades, if ever A long time ago, I heard the opposite view. Researchers only establish tenure once they've spent a long time on a specific path, and empirically, later-career don't suddenly throw out their decades of commitment to one path to explore ground once they're protected by tenure. This rings pretty true to me, based on everything I know about the scientific establishment (and my model of human psychology). There's a reason "science advances one funeral at a time" is such an old saw.