4 ms·

Being handed things because your parents have money VS being handed things because you've prepared yourself for the opportunity couldn't be more different.

why-o-why 10mo ago
Being adjacent to wealth is a privilege. Zip code is a better predictor of a child's success than any other metric.
- mothballed 10mo ago
  Because that's the hard part. Any asshole can discover something new, that alone doesn't mean much. Rosalind Franklin discovered the structure of DNA, but that was the easy part and didn't even barely merit her being credited-- the hard part is being proximal or in the nexus of power and being able to get the views and looks onward to the world. There are a gazillions of children capable of discovering things. What's important is to be the child with the social proof to get it published or actually keep the credit. That's highly valuable because having powerful friends/family is what helps fund, support, and continue research. A nobody can safely be discarded, rob the credit, then use the powerful to keep funding your friends -- in fact this might be even better for "science." The whole point of getting a PhD is to rub robes with the upper crust, get the contacts, perform the slave labor for the powerful, and become enrobed with the social proofs. If you just want to discover things, you don't need academic credentials, but you can sleep soundly knowing the information will get out there you just have to give it to someone credentialed to take the credit.
  - cindyllm 10mo ago
    [dead]
  - ecshafer 10mo ago
    Rosalind Franklins contrabutions are vastly overestimated in an effort to “correct the record”. Her data was very valuable, but she didnt make the insights.
moralestapia 10mo ago
>because you've prepared yourself for the opportunity Hmm, so, there's a teenager that loves astronomy and is very clever but he lives in rural Indiana with some parents who neglect him. (Or any third-world country around the world; or even worse, a war ridden place). How do you suggest he should prepare for this kind of opportunity? I'm not detracting from his merit, but 99% of this outcome is due to being next door to Caltech and sympathetic to its faculty. You don’t choose what you want, you choose what you can have.
- mothballed 10mo ago
  Learn to be a roofer, make bank (I paid my ~"uneducated" roofer like $5k for labor alone for ~48 hours of labor), buy rural Indiana land, build your own private observatory, enjoy doing your own research without the crushing burden of the academic grinder. Astronomy is one of those fields where amateurs make new discoveries quite frequently.
  - TheOtherHobbes 10mo ago
    You can't do private research because most astronomy is really data- and compute-heavy astrophysics. Optical searches are fun and everyone loves new comets, but comet hunting isn't academic science.
    - mothballed 10mo ago
      Interestingly, when hunting on a computer or some new celestial object gets "hunted" by university astronomers, they call it "research" and don't smugly dismiss it as just some fun that can safely be gatekept from being called astronomy. As always, when working outside the system, it should be expected that semantics will be used against you, but if it's your interest, it needn't stop you nor need care about such unpersuasive arguments.
- cooper_ganglia 10mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cook#Early_life_and_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cook#Early_life_and_educat...

why-o-why 10mo ago

Being adjacent to wealth is a privilege. Zip code is a better predictor of a child's success than any other metric.

mothballed 10mo ago
Because that's the hard part. Any asshole can discover something new, that alone doesn't mean much. Rosalind Franklin discovered the structure of DNA, but that was the easy part and didn't even barely merit her being credited-- the hard part is being proximal or in the nexus of power and being able to get the views and looks onward to the world. There are a gazillions of children capable of discovering things. What's important is to be the child with the social proof to get it published or actually keep the credit. That's highly valuable because having powerful friends/family is what helps fund, support, and continue research. A nobody can safely be discarded, rob the credit, then use the powerful to keep funding your friends -- in fact this might be even better for "science." The whole point of getting a PhD is to rub robes with the upper crust, get the contacts, perform the slave labor for the powerful, and become enrobed with the social proofs. If you just want to discover things, you don't need academic credentials, but you can sleep soundly knowing the information will get out there you just have to give it to someone credentialed to take the credit.
- cindyllm 10mo ago
  [dead]
- ecshafer 10mo ago
  Rosalind Franklins contrabutions are vastly overestimated in an effort to “correct the record”. Her data was very valuable, but she didnt make the insights.

moralestapia 10mo ago

>because you've prepared yourself for the opportunity Hmm, so, there's a teenager that loves astronomy and is very clever but he lives in rural Indiana with some parents who neglect him. (Or any third-world country around the world; or even worse, a war ridden place). How do you suggest he should prepare for this kind of opportunity? I'm not detracting from his merit, but 99% of this outcome is due to being next door to Caltech and sympathetic to its faculty. You don’t choose what you want, you choose what you can have.

mothballed 10mo ago
Learn to be a roofer, make bank (I paid my ~"uneducated" roofer like $5k for labor alone for ~48 hours of labor), buy rural Indiana land, build your own private observatory, enjoy doing your own research without the crushing burden of the academic grinder. Astronomy is one of those fields where amateurs make new discoveries quite frequently.
- TheOtherHobbes 10mo ago
  You can't do private research because most astronomy is really data- and compute-heavy astrophysics. Optical searches are fun and everyone loves new comets, but comet hunting isn't academic science.
  - mothballed 10mo ago
    Interestingly, when hunting on a computer or some new celestial object gets "hunted" by university astronomers, they call it "research" and don't smugly dismiss it as just some fun that can safely be gatekept from being called astronomy. As always, when working outside the system, it should be expected that semantics will be used against you, but if it's your interest, it needn't stop you nor need care about such unpersuasive arguments.
cooper_ganglia 10mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cook#Early_life_and_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cook#Early_life_and_educat...