Thank you for writing this Edo, it’s really interesting to read about these topics as someone who’s not really knowledgeable in research and academia.
“it’s not clear to me how much productivity loss is there when scientists are working on stuff they are less intrinsically interested in. The situation seems to be fine in commercial companies...”
I would assume there’s a major difference in why most researchers in academia do what they do (interest and sheer curiosity, along with prestige) and why most professionals in the private sector do what they do (money and career development). This is not to say you’re not right about that, but I think it’s important to keep in mind the difference in the motivation that drives people’s work in different work environments.
Yea, I could have made that clearer but that was exactly my point :) If other incentives seem to work just as well, then we can perhaps change the motivation source to something which overall does more good. I think this is an interesting question and definitely sits deep in this debate.
Thank you for writing this Edo, it’s really interesting to read about these topics as someone who’s not really knowledgeable in research and academia.
“it’s not clear to me how much productivity loss is there when scientists are working on stuff they are less intrinsically interested in. The situation seems to be fine in commercial companies...”
I would assume there’s a major difference in why most researchers in academia do what they do (interest and sheer curiosity, along with prestige) and why most professionals in the private sector do what they do (money and career development). This is not to say you’re not right about that, but I think it’s important to keep in mind the difference in the motivation that drives people’s work in different work environments.
Thanks!
Yea, I could have made that clearer but that was exactly my point :) If other incentives seem to work just as well, then we can perhaps change the motivation source to something which overall does more good. I think this is an interesting question and definitely sits deep in this debate.