5 ms·

This is a tragedy. Academia and research needs a new broom. Presently incentives are peverse. Impact factors, publisher corruption, grant applications and fun

This is a tragedy. Academia and research needs a new broom. Presently incentives are peverse. Impact factors, publisher corruption, grant applications and funding are a blight on science.

rawoke083600 4y ago
Kickstarter for science ?
- saalweachter 4y ago
  ... because there are never fraudulent Kickstarters?
  - rawoke083600 4y ago
    You have a better idea to contribute ?
- orzig 4y ago
  I actually freelanced on a project 10 years ago which was exactly that. Don’t take its failure as proof that such an idea cannot succeed, but the major headwinds were that most research is pretty difficult to explain (and scientists are not selected for their ability to communicate with Lee people). Also remember that Kickstarter found it necessary to write a blog post “Kickstarter is not a store“, because people were expecting projects to return fast, reliable, tangible results. By its nature, science will be even further from that revealed preference of funders
  - rawoke083600 4y ago
    Maybe that is the business case ? Making science accessable and in return get ppl that care or help with funding ? Neither solutions are perfect as most things in life, I guess the question is, will it be better enough compared to what we have now ?
  - rocqua 4y ago
    Minor spelling point, it's "lay people" not "lee people".
aaomidi 4y ago
This is happening across every single industry though. My opinion: capitalism has corrupted literally every single thing it has touched.
- coffeeblack 4y ago
  Capitalism? Do you think it was all way better in Soviet Russia? Blaming “capitalism” is just the “old man yelling at cloud” if you are 20.
  - diordiderot 4y ago
    Yes, economic systems are completely binary. Just like political ones. Either everybody votes on everything or absolute monarchy. Wait...
  - danielheath 4y ago
    There's a cogent argument to be made that under capitalism, once market saturation is reached, any further excess wealth (and capitalism creates lots of that!) is redirected to zero-sum competition (which is, on a societal level, waste). I don't think capitalism corrupts everything it touches - but I'm pretty sure it corrupts saturated markets, and these days that's an awful lot of things.
    - nonrandomstring 4y ago
      > There's a cogent argument to be made that under capitalism, once market saturation is reached, any further excess wealth (and capitalism creates lots of that!) is redirected to zero-sum competition (which is, on a societal level, waste). I think that's a strong take and agree somewhat. It's not at odds with the fact that capitalism has created more innovation, wealth and raised standards of living more than any other period in history. The problem is not capitalism, it's that capitalism is over. In the long tail of diminishing returns all that's really left for people holding obscene sums of money to do amidst shocking inequality is to lie, cheat, steal and rat-fuck one another over the remaining opportunities to die on the biggest pile of ostentatious wealth. Capitalism was a great system that ran out of fuel. I don't think we expected it to stall so soon, but it's hit some internal limit. We should be as worried about that as climate. These problems are bound up together. If we are going to preserve the liberty, opportunity, and democracy that have naturally ridden along with it we had better figure out a way to creatively re-invent the industrious ethic underpinning capitalism because, frankly, the Chinese model of consumer-communism is nothing to celebrate or hope for.

This is a tragedy. Academia and research needs a new broom. Presently incentives are peverse. Impact factors, publisher corruption, grant applications and funding are a blight on science.

rawoke083600 4y ago

Kickstarter for science ?

saalweachter 4y ago
... because there are never fraudulent Kickstarters?
- rawoke083600 4y ago
  You have a better idea to contribute ?
orzig 4y ago
I actually freelanced on a project 10 years ago which was exactly that. Don’t take its failure as proof that such an idea cannot succeed, but the major headwinds were that most research is pretty difficult to explain (and scientists are not selected for their ability to communicate with Lee people). Also remember that Kickstarter found it necessary to write a blog post “Kickstarter is not a store“, because people were expecting projects to return fast, reliable, tangible results. By its nature, science will be even further from that revealed preference of funders
- rawoke083600 4y ago
  Maybe that is the business case ? Making science accessable and in return get ppl that care or help with funding ? Neither solutions are perfect as most things in life, I guess the question is, will it be better enough compared to what we have now ?
- rocqua 4y ago
  Minor spelling point, it's "lay people" not "lee people".

aaomidi 4y ago

This is happening across every single industry though. My opinion: capitalism has corrupted literally every single thing it has touched.

coffeeblack 4y ago
Capitalism? Do you think it was all way better in Soviet Russia? Blaming “capitalism” is just the “old man yelling at cloud” if you are 20.
- diordiderot 4y ago
  Yes, economic systems are completely binary. Just like political ones. Either everybody votes on everything or absolute monarchy. Wait...
- danielheath 4y ago
  There's a cogent argument to be made that under capitalism, once market saturation is reached, any further excess wealth (and capitalism creates lots of that!) is redirected to zero-sum competition (which is, on a societal level, waste). I don't think capitalism corrupts everything it touches - but I'm pretty sure it corrupts saturated markets, and these days that's an awful lot of things.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    > There's a cogent argument to be made that under capitalism, once market saturation is reached, any further excess wealth (and capitalism creates lots of that!) is redirected to zero-sum competition (which is, on a societal level, waste). I think that's a strong take and agree somewhat. It's not at odds with the fact that capitalism has created more innovation, wealth and raised standards of living more than any other period in history. The problem is not capitalism, it's that capitalism is over. In the long tail of diminishing returns all that's really left for people holding obscene sums of money to do amidst shocking inequality is to lie, cheat, steal and rat-fuck one another over the remaining opportunities to die on the biggest pile of ostentatious wealth. Capitalism was a great system that ran out of fuel. I don't think we expected it to stall so soon, but it's hit some internal limit. We should be as worried about that as climate. These problems are bound up together. If we are going to preserve the liberty, opportunity, and democracy that have naturally ridden along with it we had better figure out a way to creatively re-invent the industrious ethic underpinning capitalism because, frankly, the Chinese model of consumer-communism is nothing to celebrate or hope for.