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I sometimes think about how eccentric the leading scientists of previous generations were. Kurt Gödel for instance would only eat food prepared by his wife, and
by bjornsing 4y ago
I sometimes think about how eccentric the leading scientists of previous generations were. Kurt Gödel for instance would only eat food prepared by his wife, and starved to death when she fell ill and couldn’t cook for him. Just look at a picture of Albert Einstein and you see he was a bit of a character. To say the same about Richard Feynman you may need video, but it’s quickly quite clear.
When you consider how “political” everything has become over the last few decades it seems likely to me that this generation’s Gödels, Einsteins and Feynmans where “outmaneuvered” early in their careers by more socially adept rivals and never reached any positions of influence. Sadly I think you see this pattern in any high status field. The few that love the nitty gritty and can really contribute are typically outmaneuvered by the many who are drawn to the prestige.
- lawrenceyan 4y agoI think Palmer Luckey and Elon Musk are great counterexamples to the success of eccentricity in our present day. Though they aren’t exactly of the PhD scientist/researcher archetype, I put that more to do with the current era we’re living in.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoArguably, neither of the two is a scientist. Their contributions weren't particularly novel from a scientific perspective: most of what they did was commercialize things that had been previously invented - in most cases, several decades ago. Working VR setups first showed up in the 90's (I think). Electric cars were a 100 year old concept, and had many previous attempts. Vertically-landing rockets happened in the late 80's. Almost all of the rest of the Musk companies (small tunnels, "hyperloops," Twitter) have little novelty. The exception may be neuralink, which may not be making any real scientific progress at all. You can argue about whether the commercialization or the invention is more important, but "science" is about proof of existence and invention, not commercialization. The whole "mad genius" idea is alive and well on the commercial side, but scientists today are much more conservative and conformist.
- bjornsing 4y agoSure. There are still pockets of society where you can escape conformism and “politics”, at least in the US.
- seydor 4y agobusiness success is often the opposite of science: to be successful in business you have to convince a ton of people to give you money. When you are successful in science, usually nobody believes you