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The average starry-eyed 17-year old is thrilled to be in a university lab and co-author a published paper. The average 40-year-old interested in indie science typically has already been there/done that, and developed an aversion to it.
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Ymmv, but I’d be thrilled to never publish in journals/conferences again, or see a grant application. Crackpot posts on my blog will do for me.
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Line is for cafe which also sells parking and tour tickets. Guided tour likely sold out though. Guy apparently on Mars sample return mission team holding forth at a picnic table to buddies (Mt. Wilson is near JPL/ Pasadena)
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While I wait for our sandwiches… one of the structural frictions of research is that like half the work gets done in the idle screwing around REPL-like phase of plating with ideas, math, data, and instruments. The part that starts with proposals is like the scaling investment.
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Proposal to papers is like series A to IPO. The seed stage is not institutionally organized because you’re expected to be inside the institution and not need support. Desk, computers, office, library, lab, colleagues.
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Expecting indie science to start at the proposals+public-data stage is… somewhere between clueless and disingenuous. You don’t need the whole luxury university environment (though I certainly enjoyed my time in it), but you need a basic version at least.