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This (deservedly) famous article by a legend is a must-read but it is also like having Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps teaching how to be successful in basketb

This (deservedly) famous article by a legend is a must-read but it is also like having Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps teaching how to be successful in basketball or swimming. What worked for them won't work for almost anyone else! FWIW, I was fortunate to do a postdoc at Bell Labs in the early 90s. The established and successful researchers, mostly men, would all talk about the sacrifices their wives made so that they could focus on meeting the insanely high expectations of the place in its glory days. It was the custom back when they made their reputations. The younger permanent staff members were leery of this because social mores and the nature of the research environment were both changing. The freewheeling pre-divestiture days were gone by that time and there was a pressure to be relevant to the needs of the corporation. The management still wanted publications in prestige journals and an international reputation by 35 but couldn't say how to do all that while satisfying the relevancy mandate. The stress on the younger permanent staff was palpable but they and everybody else made life delightful for us short-term appointees - it was all the things Universities ought to be. At the end of each Science Magazine issue is a "Working Life" feature where a (typically) young person writes about problems s/he is facing in launching a career. Work/family life balance is a consistent theme and more importantly an /expectation/ even for those on the tenure-track at high powered places. The times they have a-changed.

_gmax0 3y ago
Do you have any idea of where a young person might find that sort of environment today? Did you by chance work with Odlyzko there?
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  I've been immersed in a very applied corner of industry for nearly 20 years now and have lost touch with the world of basic research. My sense (and I have no proof to offer) is that the old Bell/IBM/DuPont/GE/... era of industrial labs with a healthy exploration culture is gone and won't come back in my lifetime. - Seemed that Google had that spirit at one time with its X Lab and also the Google Labs that put out fun products but all I read here and elsewhere is that is in the past - The Janelia Research Campus may be carrying on the spirit of small, collaborative groups led by a hands-on scientist (there were no empires at Bell Labs.) Could be a very good place to be a young student that has an interest in biology, instrumentation, and/or computation. See what they expect from the lab heads here: https://www.janelia.org/our-research/our-labs/group-leaders https://www.janelia.org/our-research/our-labs/group-leaders /excerpt "Group Leaders have time to focus their energy and creativity on research with the freedom to pursue long-term difficult projects through collaborative, interdisciplinary work. They are not evaluated solely on conventional academic measures, such as publishing. Rather, Group Leaders will be expected to make progress in their research areas and make contributions to the work of other Janelia scientists through collaboration, constructive criticism, or mentoring." /excerpt One of the guys I did know personally wound up at Janelia and eventually at Stockholm. I was on the other side of the very long Murray Hill building in the physical sciences area. I went to one of Odlyzko's presentations at the Journal Club circa 1992 or 1993 - I think it was on an important new result in prime numbers/factorization/encryption. I never met him, let alone worked with him, though. I do remember one of my senior colleagues (physical scientist) wondering why any of that stuff mattered. My response was that it was probably much more important than anything he or I were doing, had done, or would ever do. I had read something in Byte or a similar popular magazine about primes and encryption it seemed like the field had serious practical implications on top of being incredibly interesting. One of the few correct predictions in my career! Addendum: On re-reading this, I realized that I am taking a very US-centric perspective. The spirit/culture I was talking about could exist in other countries.

_gmax0 3y ago

Do you have any idea of where a young person might find that sort of environment today? Did you by chance work with Odlyzko there?

OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
I've been immersed in a very applied corner of industry for nearly 20 years now and have lost touch with the world of basic research. My sense (and I have no proof to offer) is that the old Bell/IBM/DuPont/GE/... era of industrial labs with a healthy exploration culture is gone and won't come back in my lifetime. - Seemed that Google had that spirit at one time with its X Lab and also the Google Labs that put out fun products but all I read here and elsewhere is that is in the past - The Janelia Research Campus may be carrying on the spirit of small, collaborative groups led by a hands-on scientist (there were no empires at Bell Labs.) Could be a very good place to be a young student that has an interest in biology, instrumentation, and/or computation. See what they expect from the lab heads here: https://www.janelia.org/our-research/our-labs/group-leaders https://www.janelia.org/our-research/our-labs/group-leaders /excerpt "Group Leaders have time to focus their energy and creativity on research with the freedom to pursue long-term difficult projects through collaborative, interdisciplinary work. They are not evaluated solely on conventional academic measures, such as publishing. Rather, Group Leaders will be expected to make progress in their research areas and make contributions to the work of other Janelia scientists through collaboration, constructive criticism, or mentoring." /excerpt One of the guys I did know personally wound up at Janelia and eventually at Stockholm. I was on the other side of the very long Murray Hill building in the physical sciences area. I went to one of Odlyzko's presentations at the Journal Club circa 1992 or 1993 - I think it was on an important new result in prime numbers/factorization/encryption. I never met him, let alone worked with him, though. I do remember one of my senior colleagues (physical scientist) wondering why any of that stuff mattered. My response was that it was probably much more important than anything he or I were doing, had done, or would ever do. I had read something in Byte or a similar popular magazine about primes and encryption it seemed like the field had serious practical implications on top of being incredibly interesting. One of the few correct predictions in my career! Addendum: On re-reading this, I realized that I am taking a very US-centric perspective. The spirit/culture I was talking about could exist in other countries.