I’m as frustrated with the slow pace of research as the next entrepreneur with a PhD. And I agree that the desire for professional success can be at odds with pursuing the most valuable research. Nonetheless, I think that the conservative nature of the academy does server a purpose of keeping out cranks (Alan Sokal’s hoax notwithstanding). It may be that the most breakthrough ideas seem crazy at the time, but it is also the case that most crazy ideas are not breakthroughs, but merely crazy. And if the academy does not do a good enough job of filtering out the merely crazy ideas, then the breakthroughs will drown in a sea of mediocrity. The current system is imperfect, and would benefit from some pressure to intellectually diversify, but I’m not sure that encouraging crazy research will make things better.
I’m as frustrated with the slow pace of research as the next entrepreneur with a PhD. And I agree that the desire for professional success can be at odds with pursuing the most valuable research. Nonetheless, I think that the conservative nature of the academy does server a purpose of keeping out cranks (Alan Sokal’s hoax notwithstanding). It may be that the most breakthrough ideas seem crazy at the time, but it is also the case that most crazy ideas are not breakthroughs, but merely crazy. And if the academy does not do a good enough job of filtering out the merely crazy ideas, then the breakthroughs will drown in a sea of mediocrity. The current system is imperfect, and would benefit from some pressure to intellectually diversify, but I’m not sure that encouraging crazy research will make things better.