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Not exactly this, but you could imagine a "RC, but full-time" that is an option as a ~"professional identity" in the same way a job is, but without the … job … parts.

@nelhage

Not sure that's actually a good idea or the right paradigm, but that's the analogy that jumps to mind. That would also create just, visibility and legibility, in a way that "I'm unemployed and publish software on the internet" doesn't quite.

I think that's right, yes, and I think the RC analogy is interesting because it suggests (loose) mentorship and a range of career stages. If I were going to set up this kind of structure I'd want "fellowships" for people who need the income, funded by those involved who don't.

I don't know to what degree this is how

@inkandswitch

operates, it's the closest thing I can think of.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Indeed! From an essay I published a few days ago:

Geoffrey Litt

@geoffreylitt

My 2c (having experienced both RC and I&S): important diff between framing work as “I want to explore for *my* personal satisfaction/growth” vs “we have important goals to do, which will require super-unconstrained exploration to achieve”

Geoffrey Litt

@geoffreylitt

Both are great but the latter is obviously more attractive to funders. Hard part is to make it legible without overly constraining, and to keep incentives/timescales aligned

6:05 PM · Jan 28, 2022Twitter Web App

I think the premise here though is that this is self-funded by the PIs. So my question would be more, what makes it attractive to the grad-student or postdoc-equivalents who are being paid to collaborate.

Replying to

Yeah. This is roughly a problem I have now. Maybe I can fund a grad-student-equivalent… but there's no clear next step after they "graduate", so it's not an attractive proposition.

Replying to

I suspect this is something where having an "institution" would help. The next step could be to go work with a different PI. Or to leverage the institution's connections to get a job. Or just trade on the aggregate reputation.