On the other hand, with total freedom to think, most of us might not get much done, see: http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/feynman.html
Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
21–30 of 204 posts
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#22> He doubts a similar breakthrough could be achieved in today's academic culture, because of the expectations on academics to collaborate and keep churning out papers. The opposite of an Einstein or Higgs. Academia no longer tolerates deep, unconventional thinking. Physics used to be a hobby, now its an industry to be protected from major change. For example, if you have basic knowledge of relativity you can go to ht…
Reading your link, it appears that the author just flatly assumes that space is not expanding, and everything else stems from that assumption.
The author provides another article to attempt to support that assumption, but their argument for that is incomplete, and while their alternative appears to offer explanations for some observations, it ignores other things (like cosmological redshift). Add in the fact that that the article appears targeted towards laypeople and there's no scientific paper to be found suggests that it's more psuedoscience and thought experiments than actual scientific investigation.
It seems unreasonable to claim that academia would reject the idea out of hand when no-one's even written a paper to attempt to submit to a peer-reviewed journal. I suspect the reason academia ignores the supposition is not commercial interest like you claim.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
"didn't"… "any" implies none. And wouldn't one be better off being concerned with what is taking up their own time? Higgs probably won't have the same question for you or me…
Generally yes, but if someone, Higgs in this case, is saying there is something broken with academia's definition of productivity then it begs the question what should that definition be? What was Higgs doing that was more important or more productive than publishing papers? It is a totally fair question given the circumstances. Had Higgs never said anything then I wouldn't be interested in how he spent his time in t…
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Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
…published fewer than 10 papers after his groundbreaking work, which identified the mechanism by which subatomic material acquires mass, was published in 1964. What are you talking about?
He is asking why only 10 papers in 40+ years. What else was taking up his time? I have the same question.
Not a physicist, but writing one good paper every four years sounds like a very good thing. Would you rather read 40 papers, each of which is a lowest-publishable-unit, or 10 which noticeably move science ahead?
Because of his fame, Higgs had the luxury few do--- he could contemplate quietly, and people wouldn't dare say he was doing nothing. If you do that as a mere tenure-track professor, I'd figure the university would think you're too high risk and sack you.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meh, still funny, and the jokes are often more clever than your typical network fare. EDIT: I love that I get downvoted for saying that I like a show. You guys must be a blast at parties.
I don't watch the show, personally, but it's irritating that everyone has to come down on things like this. People spend their time doing all kinds of crazy things. If it's fun and you enjoy it, then I think that's great. There are worse ways to spend your time. Apparently, that's not good enough, though. Everyone has to critique how other people enjoy themselves. I've read books on algorithm analysis and I just exci…
It's public culture, and popular enough to be held representative of a large subgroup of people. There's no reason why people shouldn't give their honest opinion of it.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#26> He doubts a similar breakthrough could be achieved in today's academic culture, because of the expectations on academics to collaborate and keep churning out papers. The opposite of an Einstein or Higgs. Academia no longer tolerates deep, unconventional thinking. Physics used to be a hobby, now its an industry to be protected from major change. For example, if you have basic knowledge of relativity you can go to ht…
Reading your link, it appears that the author just flatly assumes that space is not expanding, and everything else stems from that assumption. The author provides another article to attempt to support that assumption, but their argument for that is incomplete, and while their alternative appears to offer explanations for some observations, it ignores other things (like cosmological redshift). Add in the fact that tha…
I've been a student of that blog. It doesn't ignore cosmological redshift. Rather, the dark energy solution notes that space measurably expands, but in a relative (it depends on the observer) way as opposed to the absolute (observed by all observers) way that is generally accepted today. When space measurably expands (whether relative or absolute) you have cosmological redshift.
Space itself not expanding is the absence of an assumption. Today it's generally accepted that space itself expands, an assumption.
> Add in the fact that that the article appears targeted towards laypeople and there's no scientific paper to be found suggests that it's more psuedoscience and thought experiments than actual scientific investigation.
Thought experiments are scientific investigation. Nothing in the rest of your point actually suggests pseudoscience.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#27I feel like the inability to focus for long periods of time is holding back progress in many areas. If we can't even stay away from email for a few days, how can we clear our minds of conventional thinking?
A few days? People get upset if you haven't replied in an hour.
Seriously though, long periods of solitude is not what we need. I'd not be productive if I became a hermit, but I'd be a lot more productive if I had periods of quiet time, punctuated by moments of discussion. This is how thinkers and artists (and hackers) worked for a long time, before we wrongly convinced ourselves that being interruptible improves productivity.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reading your link, it appears that the author just flatly assumes that space is not expanding, and everything else stems from that assumption. The author provides another article to attempt to support that assumption, but their argument for that is incomplete, and while their alternative appears to offer explanations for some observations, it ignores other things (like cosmological redshift). Add in the fact that tha…
I've been a student of that blog. It doesn't ignore cosmological redshift. Rather, the dark energy solution notes that space measurably expands, but in a relative (it depends on the observer) way as opposed to the absolute (observed by all observers) way that is generally accepted today. When space measurably expands (whether relative or absolute) you have cosmological redshift. Space itself not expanding is the abse…
It seems unreasonable to claim that academia would reject the idea out of hand when no-one's even written a paper to attempt to submit to a peer-reviewed journal.
If you showed me scientific papers that had been rejected by peer reviewers, then you might have a point. But if it's entirely articles targeted at laypeople and no scientific papers, it's pseudoscience.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is asking why only 10 papers in 40+ years. What else was taking up his time? I have the same question.
Presumably thinking about things that never resulted in papers because they didn't work out, or else working on those 10. Working for 4 years on a paper isn't out of the question if it's totally original work and one is being super careful. Not that doing that is rewarded these days, which I assume was exactly his point.
Even for those of us just learning, far more "productivity" is required. If I wrote a paper every 4 years, my PhD program would be a 10-14 year program.
Re: Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't watch the show, personally, but it's irritating that everyone has to come down on things like this. People spend their time doing all kinds of crazy things. If it's fun and you enjoy it, then I think that's great. There are worse ways to spend your time. Apparently, that's not good enough, though. Everyone has to critique how other people enjoy themselves. I've read books on algorithm analysis and I just exci…
It's public culture, and popular enough to be held representative of a large subgroup of people. There's no reason why people shouldn't give their honest opinion of it.
I'm by no means arguing against free speech, and I don't have a problem with people disliking something or even voicing their dislike.
I just get miffed by the condescending tone a lot of folks take.