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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

#151

Post by iwontberude »

kubb wrote: post #62
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…

Folks! This is a quip from a novelist! Take it with a grain of salt. It has to be punchy, not accurate.

Make comedy legal

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#152

Post by aleph_minus_one »

iammjm wrote: post #149
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with > 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 after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things. My experience is rather that earl…

You might find the hypothesis more convincing if you replace technology (something you clearly care about and are up to date with) with something that's not generally your thing but which changes dynamically, like maybe music, fashion, or architecture

> You might find the hypothesis more convincing if you replace technology [...] with something that's not generally your thing but which changes dynamically, like maybe music, fashion, or architecture

Let's take music. I clearly grew up in an environment where I think I got a rather "acquired", high-brow taste in music.

While I, as of today, do see that some of this taste that I was imprinted with can be a little bit arbitrary, I would clearly say that nevertheless my taste in music is strongly influenced by whether it fits the "taste values" with which I was shaped early in my life, similarly to what I wrote in my previous post:

> So, in my experience it is typically not about the year when something was invented, but rather about whether the invention is a good or bad fit for the values that you were shaped with in your early life.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#153

Post by epolanski »

amai wrote: post #88

It is not about the age, it is about the time you work in a specific field. If you are newcomer to a field you simply don't know what is difficult and what is not. So you have a more open mind. See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Ne'eman This guy was a soldier for 15 years before he studied physics for 3 years and discovered SU(3) and quarks before Gell-Mann did. So switching fields opens your mind fo…

I see your point, but I believe that age is a contributing factor none the less.

It's well documented that as we age we tend to be more conservative, less open to new ideas and more risk adverse. That encompasses anything from work, hobbies, social relations and even politics.

There's also another major factor behind age. As we get older our responsibilities grow while our time and energy budget shrinks.

E.g. I have always wanted to start my own company, and now that I'm at the peak of my capabilities and in the strongest financial situation I've ever been I just don't feel I have the energy and resilience I would've had a decade ago, when I was younger and more naive.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#154

Post by johnny22 »

ktallett wrote: post #50
johnny22 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nowadays? It's never been popular.

Yes, as nowadays we have the ability to simulate or experiment theories at a great speed. A century ago it was a lot harder so scepticism made sense as you couldn't easily prove your theory. You feel we should be able to take more risks now, but if anything we take as many or fewer, therefore I fear mavericks have become even less popular.

It is not that simple. People spend days, months, and years going down the wrong path. They aren't so willing to give that up when something that can replace it will throw all that work down the drain.

Re: As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work

#155

Post by xyz100 »

RandomWorker wrote: post #108

Classic explore versus exploit. When I was a young researcher I was given a lot of impossible opportunities. Tried 10 and did two pieces of disruptive work. That work has accrued hundreds of citations and whole research groups have received millions to continue to work on it. I didn’t see any meaningful money from that work. Now, I have a family and my research is based on requests that have deliverables and pay the…

Alternatively, you win the highest prize in your field and the only path you see forward is solving the most impossible problem in the field, which of course you will fail to do.
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