"What's the motivation to work on a potentially big idea rather than something you personally find great interest in" The two aren't contradictory. All the aca

"What's the motivation to work on a potentially big idea rather than something you personally find great interest in" The two aren't contradictory. All the academic folk I know work on ideas that they find interesting. And some of those things are big ideas. The difference is that there isn't a short-term economic benefit attached to the vast majority of those ideas.