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This question's gauche, but: given the prevalence of $400k++ comp packages for ~30-year-olds in Big Tech, why aren't there lots more "gentle[wo]man scholars"? i.e. people quitting to do non-remunerative creative projects I can think of some, but shouldn't there be thousands?

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Patrick Mineault

@patrickmineault

Jan 28

I did this and I think one of the barriers is a lack of a framework to describe what one is doing. Independent scientist sounds like ~ crackpot. I've gotten a few editors come back to me about a lack of affiliation saying i must have an affiliation. Still managed to publish tho

Jordan Schneider

@jordanschnyc

Jan 28

there needs to be the equivalent of 'adjunct fellow' at a dc think tank for off the grid tech people

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It's funny—this hasn't been a problem for me at all! But I think being able to say "helped build iOS at Apple; led R&D at Khan Academy" sort of checks the same boxes… I'd probably have a lot more trouble without that.

1:30 AM · Jan 28, 2022Twitter Web App

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Might be of interest!

progress.institute

Broadening the Knowledge Economy through Independent Scholarship

Summary This article is part of the Progress Studies Policy Accelerator that the Institute for Progress ran in partnership with the Day One Project at the Federation of American Scientists. Scienti...

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Also, I think what you're doing and your CV is particularly amenable to the "tools for thought" discipline. I suspect people still might give you funny looks if you started trying to do theoretical biology.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jan 28

Oh, definitely! The prior box-ticking needs to be congruent with the scholarship. If I'd worked as a PI at Genentech or something, though, I could maybe pull it off?

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