Daniel Lemire's blog

, 6 min read

What kind of researcher are you?

9 thoughts on “What kind of researcher are you?”

  1. Murat Demirbas says:

    Of course you know about Birds and Frogs by Dyson. Both types are necessary.

    http://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf

  2. Sarah says:

    Why are they all “he”?

  3. @Sarah Because it is a pain to write “she or he”.

  4. Djamé says:

    I can’t believe the @sarah’s comment is real. My institution is trying to start thinking about having all its administrative, research and everything gender neutral.

    Trouble is that the language they’re willing to change is probably the most sexist ever. We say “1 million de femmes-FEM-PLUR et un homme-MASC-SG sont arrivés-MASC-PLUR” and not “sont arrivées-FEM-PLUR”.
    Yeah, I know it’s like living in a dilbert comics because of course, this is the most important problem of French academia.

    The link with the post? Easy, this comes from an institution where they put unproductive (research-wise) professors in charge of the middle management. So too much free time entails too much crap.

    Syntax is syntax, most notably based on usage established for years, if not century, it doesn’t need to be corrupted by politically correct newspeak. Which will remain hypocrisy until women will earn the same amount of money and get the same career evolution than men.
    pffffff.

    Sorry for the rant,
    Djamé

  5. fred says:

    So which type are you? 🙂

  6. Dominic Amann says:

    I would guess that you really consider yourself an entrepreneur, since you describe that the most loosely, with the least “con”. This ties into you seeing yourself (forced into) being a manager sometimes.

    I think an entrepreneur is really an all-rounder, with a good smattering of entrepreneur + politician + manager + prince, but less of the artisan.

  7. @fred

    I’m a little bit of a prince except that I dress poorly and I think that I work hard. Sometimes, I can be a politician but it does not happen often. I’m forced into being a manager sometimes but I hate it and I am not very good at it. I’m regularly clueless. I can be a dreamer, though much less so as I grow older. I can be an artisan except that I rarely publish alone.

  8. Barry Kort says:

    When I was funded, I functioned in the mode of an artisan, working on narrowly-defined problems.

    When I was unfunded, I functioned in the role of a dreamer, working on the hardest problems of our age.

  9. Tim Finin says:

    Another type might be the serial trend setter — a research who is quick recognize and understand exiting new ideas as they emerge, helps lay their foundation through early work and moves on.