KevonLooney ( @KevonLooney@lemm.ee ) English42•9 months agoScientists have been looking for funding since before the scientific method existed. Leonardo Da Vinci had patrons
jmcs ( @jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de ) English31•9 months agoHey, some of the most famous scientists were rich as fuck and were doing research basically as a hobby.
WarmSoda ( @WarmSoda@lemm.ee ) English13•9 months agoOf course. If you have to work all day there’s not much time left for sciencing
Spzi ( @Spzi@lemm.ee ) English3•9 months agoMaybe (honest maybe) it was more the reverse; Some of the most richest people also enjoyed being scientists as a hobby.
In times when no one else could afford to play along, this could make you one of the most famous scientists.
MxM111 ( @MxM111@kbin.social ) 6•9 months agoFor his arts, for sure. But for his science projects?
trailing9 ( @trailing9@lemmy.ml ) English41•9 months agoIt’s inherent to grants. If you want scientists to choose their topics you have to fund them unconditionally.
LillyPip ( @LillyPip@lemmy.ca ) English33•9 months agoWhen your future began to depend on what you were published in, and those publishers had to compete with corporate interests. Capitalism poisons nearly everything it touches, but especially academia.
Stuka ( @Stuka@lemmy.ml ) English24•9 months agoThis system is one of the primary reasons I decided not to go into academia
OpenStars ( @OpenStars@kbin.social ) 6•9 months agoFor the same reason the person tweeted rather than googled this thought.
lol3droflxp ( @lol3droflxp@kbin.social ) 6•9 months agoIsn’t that the same thing? Why work as a scientist when you don’t have interesting research to do? And if you do, then getting funding should be possible. I know that it can get quite tricky and exhausting but what exactly do those people expect? The whole job of scientists is to come up with worthwhile questions and to find answers.
hamster ( @hamster@kbin.social ) 4•9 months agoNo, the number of grants you get determines whether you get tenure / raises. So the government tells everyone what research ideas they will fund and everyone has to do as many of those as possible.
MxM111 ( @MxM111@kbin.social ) 3•9 months agoUsually professors come up with grants and students are solving the questions. Professors just don’t have time to do both.
Dogyote ( @Dogyote@slrpnk.net ) English1•9 months agoThe problem the tweet is pointing out is that research scientists are mostly concerned about getting and keeping funding since their jobs and the jobs of those working for them depend on it. Thus they’ll target research questions that are deemed sexy by those in control of the funds. This can lead to a few areas being over-researched and other worthy areas of inquiry being underfunded. Plus that over-researched work can be of questionable quality and importance since a lot of less-good scientists get funded due to the overabundance of funds.
AndrasKrigare ( @AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org ) English5•9 months agoWhat a weird take. Alternative version:
“When did authors lose sight of the fact that books should be written about story ideas they already have, instead of trying to think up stories to write about.”
Why would we want people to stop coming up with ideas that would be beneficial enough to be funded?
HorseWithNoName ( @HorseWithNoName@lemm.ee ) English6•9 months agoI take it you don’t work in academia
Mac ( @Mac@mander.xyz ) English3•9 months agoAlternative idea: perform and publish misleading research to push a corporate driven narrative for money.
👁️👄👁️ ( @mojo@lemm.ee ) English1•9 months agoThat’s the same thing lol