

Taken for granted: the man who wasn't there - davi
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2009_02_13/caredit.a0900021

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davi
Analogue between academic science and web startups:

'A tournament market "offers participants the chance of winning a big prize--
an independent research career, tenure, a named chair, scientific renown,
awards--through competition," writes Richard Freeman and co-authors.
Tournament markets amplify "small differences in productivity into large
differences in recognition and reward" ... In the real world, casting off
large numbers of extremely capable people is no anomaly but simply how a
tournament market works.'

The thing is, most people entering academic science don't _know_ this --
whereas startup types seem almost to relish it.

~~~
quantumhobbit
The difference is that a failed startup isn't seen as something bad. It can
even look good on a resume. Whereas a failed career in science becomes an
albatross around your neck making it very difficult to reenter the scientific
career path.

~~~
davi
Also faster iterative cycles: from beginning to end, a startup can fail faster
than a scientific career.

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tigerthink
Here's a possible explanation for why academic science is a tournament market.
To have an effective scientific community you need to have people build on the
work of other scientists. But if there are too many other scientists, all of
which have equally obscure work, this becomes difficult. So scientists are all
trying to push their own work to make sure it gets the attention it deserves.
The ones who are successful become heroes; the ones who aren't are discarded.

Just a guess; I really know nothing about this.

