I love this. My experience as someone who loves science inasmuch as it’s a process of genuine learning and discovery (rather than merely a day job, or a competition), who never really loved school but spent a few years living in the library, post graduation, working on independent research, I can hardly express how encouraging it is to read this:
I don’t think there is a typical way physics is being done; there’s a great deal of variation. But there does seem to be more pressure on young researchers than there should be, especially on post-docs and new professors. Science shouldn’t be a grind to publish more papers and advance a career — we’re supposed to be doing this because we love it and find it fascinating. High-quality work and interesting projects should be valued, not just a lengthy publication record. And since science helps society, I think society should be better to scientists and support them in doing the research they want, rather than requiring them to jump through so many hoops.
That’s from a Seed interview with independent physicist Garrett Lisi. Interesting guy. After getting his PhD “he dropped out of academia and nearly out of society…
For almost a decade, Lisi moved on no fixed schedule between Maui, where he likes to surf, and the mountains of the West, where he snowboards. Four years ago, Lisi persuaded his girlfriend, Crystal Baranyk, who is an artist, to move with him into an old Colorado ski-shuttle van; he remodelled it himself, shipped it to Maui, and parked it by the beach. They lived in the van for a year, with no toilet. He worked intermittently, sometimes as a snowboard instructor, once on a short-term consulting contract when a friend’s software company needed an algorithm solved, but mostly he tried to think about physics. [New Yorker]
Now with all that surfing and snowboarding, people might assume he’s undisciplined, or lacks seriousness, work ethic, and focus. But if we really really want to figure something out (or need to figure something out), having to occupy any mental energy or time on job interviews, teaching, grant applications, proposals, departmental politics, office assignments, parking passes, etc, can make intellectual heavy lifting nearly impossible. Many research projects can be done despite all the hustle and bustle, but if you’re trying to develop ‘An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything’ — that kind of project can be like a very intense marriage.
