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Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

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Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#1

Post by warkanlock »

I've been diving into the lives of Von Neumann, Shannon, and Dirac, and they all have a lot in common when it comes to research and academia: they went to university, got great exposure to the cutting-edge stuff in their fields, and built a ton of connections. Even though I have a degree, I now think academia might be the only real way to do meaningful research.

I got into this because I wanted to "do research," but the strict formats, all the requirements before you can publish, the references you have to use, the nitty-gritty of writing essays, and the conditions that seem to be part of the status quo and hidden secrets between universities make it really tough for an outsider.

What do you think? I'm asking because I'm skimming through some ideas that I think could make a good paper or article, but the whole process seems so closed off that I can't see myself succeeding.

P.S.: I know R&D departments also *do research*, but they seem just as closed off, if not more, than universities.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#4

Post by dash2 »

I'd recommend doing a PhD. Not everything in any science can be learnt from books. There is a lot of learning by doing.

After that and a bit of experience, you don't necessarily need to be employed in academia. The obvious question is, how will you make money from doing research? If you are just doing it as a hobby, that's fine, but advancing the forefront of human knowledge is hard, intensive work and usually requires more than a part-time commitment.

Here's something I published while not employed in the university system, just to show it is possible: https://github.com/hughjonesd/hrs-selection, published version at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10519-024-10189-8.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#6

Post by bell-cot »

Do Research in what field(s), with what skill and budget?

Doing historical research is pretty easy, if you're fluent in the relevant language(s), and have good research skills and lots of time. And with the number of historians & history-adjacent professionals online these day - finding research-worthy questions would be fairly easy. Downside: "Research" probably means spending months meticulously picking through documents in an ill-organized national archive, or something similar. And at first, recognition (in anything like a serious professional journal) would be at the "mentioned & thanked" level.

Mathematical research is "easy" - if you're OMG-level talented. Famously, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan Otherwise, it's grueling hard work, with no guarantee that you'll ever discover anything worth publishing.

If you need access to "trophy" scientific equipment (NASA' James Webb telescope, CERN's LHC, etc.) - sorry, even big-name establishment insiders struggle to get that.

And if you're saying "do research" when you mean "receive research funding and get published"...sorry, but no. Up-through-the-ranks establishment insiders are struggling (and mostly failing) to get funded and published.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#7

Post by mikewarot »

I tinker with ideas all the time... as far as disciplined research, that requires feedback from peers. I wouldn't be a stickler about "qualifications" in the paper sense, but care deeply about actual competence in them.

My hobby horse is the BitGrid, a "Turing Complete" systolic array that I hope to see actually reach Petaflop performance.

Of course, it could just be a pretty stone of no practical value.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#8

Post by beryilma »

Sure, you can certainly do research outside of academia. But, for all practical purposes, you cannot publish at a reputable journal without an academic or R&D center affiliation.

However, what you call "nitty gritty of writing essays" is there for a reason: to streamline the communication and acknowledge the contributions of others. As long as you are not inventing something unseen before, you just cannot "do research" without also doing those things.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#9

Post by coolradmab »

yes its hard, as somone who built a wetlab in a maker space for bio materials research and did the hours each day it took to push the bleeding edge on synthetic sea shell analogues to producing a working protocol. i haven't managed to publish the work in a journal due too the fees involved. you can find more on my site https://alexmakes.net/projects/sea_chells.html

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to do research outside academy?

#10

Post by yimmothathird »

mintaka5 wrote: post #5

yes. stop filtering anything and all things knowledge through institutions that use academia as a business model. Any and all things can be researched by anyone, and don't let ivory-tower heads convince you they have exclusive access to knowledge. They don't!

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