
The power of the amateurs, from Mendel to Lovecraft, Crick and beyond - soufron
https://medium.com/@soufron/the-power-of-the-amateurs-6753be4f7536
======
andars
Decent idea, but unfortunately unconvincing examples.

Mendel has been the subject of controversy regarding whether his results were
fraudulent. Hardly a great choice for an exemplar, whatever the truth is.

Linus Pauling (described as an "amateur biologist" in a caption) was hardly an
amateur interested in the structure of DNA, having written his PhD on x-ray
diffraction. In addition, he is introduced in the text as "Linus Pauli," a
Nobel-prize winning physicist. This seems to be a Mendelian cross between
Linus Pauling, the Nobel-prize winning chemist, and Wolfgang Pauli, the Nobel-
prize winning physicist.

Francis Crick, who made the title as an example of the power of amateurs, was
pursuing a PhD in the field of x-ray crystallography, which sort of
disqualifies him an "amateur" in my mind. Those "careful biology experiments"
were studies of x-ray diffraction images of DNA, making Crick's physics
background entirely relevant.

~~~
valuearb
Michael Faraday.

"Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most
influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic
field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established
the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday
also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was
an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[1][2] He similarly
discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction and diamagnetism, and
the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices
formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to
his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate
of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of
oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as "anode", "cathode",
"electrode" and "ion". Faraday ultimately became the first and foremost
Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a
lifetime position.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and
simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as
trigonometry and were limited to the simplest algebra."

Tesla never graduated university, and was homeless for a while. Ended up
basically creating everything we needed to make and use AC power.

~~~
soufron
Wow, I did not know about these two. I'll note it for later.

------
gotothedoctor
This is an oddly structured argument, which collapses upon itself based on the
examples the author chose-and the vocabulary he uses to segment them.

An amateur does a thing because they love it, while a professional does it
because they are paid to do so. Once an amateur is paid, they become
professional.

Perhaps this would be more compelling if the author segmented his examples
based on whether they were members of the scientific establishment, or of the
scientific avant garde instead.

~~~
soufron
I'll not defend the structuration of the argument. This a small medium post
only intended to put a few ideas together. As it's supposed part of a more
complete book, I'll keep your critics in mind though, and try formulate things
more completely and clearly then - I'll have more space and more time.

Also, I think I'll add new posts on this topic in the future.

------
vixen99
Crick was a professional scientist i.e., that's how he earned his living.

~~~
soufron
You're right, but he was not a professional biologist. Watson was though.

------
louithethrid
The power of the expert is to limit public access to knowledge and scare
amateurs of, thus raising his value by means of artificial scarcity.

And that is how it worked in the past. Todays problem is, that to become a
expert, one has to sacrifice years of life, just to gather all knowledge
necessary to understand and contribute to a field. Thus barriers are not only
no longer needed, the sheer mass of knowledge works as a paywall against
amateurs. This ocassionally lowers, when a completely new field is discovered,
but in general this principle holds.

To allow amateurs to contribute something usefull again, they would have to
study in there spare time, spend a lot of time on the subject - in there free
time and then they- will become experts without titles. Thank you for those,
internet.

~~~
soufron
That's exactly what many amateur researchers reproach to Big Science. That
it's less a way to discover new ideas, than to control access to knowledge.

