Sharp Minds vs Sharp Elbows
To attract the sharpest minds to science, drive the returns from sharp elbows towards zero.
If you are new to my thinking I should say what I mean by a profession being broken. By way of example, take a top post-war expansion era PhD advisor who trained researchers before 1973. Those researchers generally got positions they trained for:
Post 1973, arguably even more amazing PhD advisors...the creme de la creme...at the very top places...struggle to get their trainees research positions. All for the obvious reason that most careers dried up due to Embedded Growth Obligations (EGOS).
Once the field goes into extractive mode, it names calls those who point out the obvious: increased Darwinian competition left us w/ more ruthless competitors who may be better trained & *less* generative than the earlier folks who didnât know they were building a pyramid scheme.
The various professions all have their version of this. If you are highly trained and are paid for your time, you probably have a relationship to a pyramid scheme where the demand for training outstrips real demand for the trained. This leads to sharp elbows over sharp minds. End
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