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As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

nautil.us

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Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#11

Post by renox »

jampekka wrote: post #7
Animats wrote: post #2

Einstein spent his later career trying to reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics. He failed. So has everyone after him. It's not about Einstein being old. It's that it's a really hard problem.

TFA also refers to just Einstein's 1905 papers. He published general relativity 10 years later. And after GE he contributed e.g. stimulated emission, Bose-Einstein statistics, Einstein-de Sitter cosmological model and the EPR paradox, among lots of other stuff. Also the claim "toward the tail end of Einstein’s life, he argued strenuously against the concepts undergirding the emerging field of quantum mechanics" downp…

Yes and being 'opposed' to QM contributed to expose the 'spooky action at distance' that QM implies, which is very important.. It's a pity that experimentators were able to demonstrate it only a long time after Einstein's death, what would have been his reaction??

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#13

Post by somewhatgoated »

hackthemack wrote: post #6

I prefer the full quote by Douglas Adams. I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented…

It’s pretty damn accurate in my case.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#14

Post by grebc »

They hit the nail on the head in the first paragraph.

Older people have influence, power, control to direct where resources are allocated.

No 25yo scientists has the werewithal or experience to challenge that until later in life.

It’s kind of like asking why old people have all the assets.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#16

Post by zoogeny »

hackthemack wrote: post #6

I prefer the full quote by Douglas Adams. I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented…

This feels apt in more than just science/technology. It matches my experience with culture as well, e.g. music and movies.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#17

Post by johnny22 »

ktallett wrote: post #9

Disruptive work nowadays is not very popular with institutions and doesn't win you grants. What does win grants is plodding along on a same path usually towards some end goal that is the latest buzzword. Those who stay in academia all start aspirational and wish to change the world, but the system sucks it out of them.

nowadays? It's never been popular.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#18

Post by ShowalkKama »

grebc wrote: post #14

They hit the nail on the head in the first paragraph. Older people have influence, power, control to direct where resources are allocated. No 25yo scientists has the werewithal or experience to challenge that until later in life. It’s kind of like asking why old people have all the assets.

Fascinating perspective.

In today’s fast-paced scientific landscape, it’s crucial to recognize that innovation is not just about ideas — it’s about access, infrastructure, and thought leadership.

Einstein disrupted the status quo, but today’s emerging researchers must first navigate a robust ecosystem of grants, incentives, and legacy stakeholders before they can move the needle.

Food for thought.

/s

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#19

Post by analog31 »

>>> It was the Nobel laureate and quantum physicist Max Planck who wrote that “science advances one funeral at a time” (which is actually a somewhat artful translation of his original statement, in German) about revered gatekeepers and their nostalgia for insights past that keep leaps in scientific understanding from happening. Turns out, he may have been right.

Or he may have been wrong. I think it was Paul Feyerabend who showed that most paradigms (yes, including that one) of how science works are falsified by counterexamples in scientific history and practice.

We love to make a discovery seem like a triumph against evil and obstruction, and sometimes it happens, but sometimes it's just a discovery.

Disclosure: Old scientist.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#20

Post by the__alchemist »

zoogeny wrote: post #16
hackthemack wrote: post #6

I prefer the full quote by Douglas Adams. I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented…

This feels apt in more than just science/technology. It matches my experience with culture as well, e.g. music and movies.

I feel like many younger people still listen to music from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s etc, as an exception (?)
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