How to Do Great Work

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Curiosity is key.

I know people who are perfectly content following obscurity with curiosity and the world would not consider them successful by monetary measures.

This is a good article, but I don't think it acknowledges the challenges and dangers that come with working in disruptive technology fields. There are certain fields where great work is welcomed by all, and although their may be a competition between interested parties over who gets to control (i.e. profit from) the fruits of your work, nobody is interested in actively suppressing technological progress in that field. For example, nobody I know of wants to suppress the development of faster computer chips - although the US government doesn't want China to have access to the latest ASML process technology.

There are many fields where this is not true - e.g. neither Apple nor Microsoft were thrilled about the development of the open-source Linux operating system for decades. Similarly, renewable energy technology funding has been actively suppressed at the federal funding level in the USA by politicians in the pay of the fossil fuel sector since the 1970s, as even a cursory examination of DOE budgets will reveal. Decentralized robust energy grids not under the control of large investor conglomerates are another touchy subject.

Nevertheless, it's possible to do great work in these fields but only if you understand the forces arrayed against you in great detail. In some cases, making progress might require fairly radical solutions. For renewable energy development, moving to a country whose economy is not based on fossil fuel exports and which already is interested in replacing fossil fuel imports with renewables might be the optimal solution, particularly if the kind of work you have in mind requires expensive technological support. Otherwise, you'll have to accept shoestring budgets and active opposition to your work.

There are a rather large number of fields where these issues arise. Academic institutions have largely been corporatized in the USA, and one side-effect is the gutting of environmental contaminant research programs that measured things like heavy metals, organochlorine contaminants, etc. in water, plants and soil. Similarly, research progams that focused on the potential uses of out-of-patent medicinal compounds were eliminated because the private pharmaceutical partners of universities were only interested in new patentable compounds. Of course, there are fields where you'll get lots of support - development of military drone technology, say.

This kind of situation isn't a new phenomena. Historically, technological stagnation is associated with the rise of autocratic monopoly power in all civilizations. The printing press was a threat to the established order in medieval Europe, the electric lightbulb was a threat to the kerosene lamp and oil business (note it took FDR's New Deal to electrify Rural America), and so on. Therefore, if you plan on doing great work in a disruptive technology field, don't be surprised when you run into headwinds of various sorts. Such forces can often be overcome (Linux eventually succeeded on a large scale), but pretending they don't exist is the worst mistake you can make. Understanding those opposing forces in detail is going to be a necessary first step.

Develop a habit of having a lot of dollars. Don't let life be something you do without at least a billion of them.

You're totally welcome for the sage advice. Have a nice day.

haha.