Azhir Mahmood  🚀 🤖 🧬 🧠 🪐

It's hard to see how I can run a lab and also rise to a director-level position in the NSF. Program manager rotation + lab, sure, but I don't think that allows one to make structural changes.

That's true, but you can still have an influence on people in those position, I would think. Some form of collective lobbying will be critical to help those in more political positions to see which way the wind is blowing -- but also powerful opinion pieces, open letters, etc.

Perhaps, but it would need to be a massive effort. Their jobs are so different from ours (i.e. worrying about keeping congress and executive branch happy) that our academic opinions are many degrees removed from usefully actionable on their end. We're privates to their generals

this is a common refrain we often hear.. "I will do it if everyone else does it" adds to so much collective friction things will remain exactly where there, or that weights pulls everyone deeper into the dump.. say it with me: every bit of action from each PI makes a difference!

Don't confuse inaction on this with an unwillingness to help improve science. I spent my free time on NMC and NMA this year, which is a different way of improving the community.

my bad, I didn't mean it personally to you Brad at all (i generally never make personal comments as a matter of policy, except in egregious situations). I do hear this refrains so routinely in the reform debates it frustrates me.

I totally get that, and I agree that we need energy from all corners to push reforms on all fronts (although we also have to be strategic given our limited free time).

I believe the system we have is actually pretty good. Not locally. But long term. I'll eventually write a simulation paper to convince @GunnarBlohm