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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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Matt Clancy

@mattsclancy

Jan 28

Lots of plausible factors in the replies. Another might be the professionalization of lots of activities, so harder to make a major contribution and also less fun. Two illustrations:

Matt Clancy

@mattsclancy

Jan 28

1 - Back in, say, Newton’s day, how many people are out there that a curious aristocrat needs to compete with? How many years does he (probably a he back then) need to spend catching up to the frontier? I bet it’s a lot less.

Matt Clancy

@mattsclancy

Jan 28

2 - I can think of at least two present day gentlemen scholars who seem to want to do academic level work, but don’t want to mess around with the pain of peer review. But that caps the upside you can get.

Michael is back in San Francisco, soon in Santa Fe

@michael_nielsen

Jan 28

Why does it cap the upside? If you mean: you need to engage with the best relevant communities, that's certainly true (and not done by lots of people who'd like to do research). But no-one remembers whether the Principia was peer reviewed.

Michael is back in San Francisco, soon in Santa Fe

@michael_nielsen

Jan 28

An amusing version of this: academic books often undergo considerably _less_ peer review than papers. Which is pretty funny, considering how much more weighty people (often, in some fields) will treat books.