The differences between tinkering and research (2016)
Thank you OP for your very insightful blog post. You have been better than any other academic at articulating exactly what happens when I (or one of my colleagues) interact with the academic world and you made me realize that the academic world has a set of values that might be good but which I should not even attempt to incorporate in my own professional life.<p>I have come to my personal conclusion that there is a difference between &#x27;science&#x27; and &#x27;the academic world&#x27; in much the same way as there is a difference between &#x27;religion&#x27; and &#x27;the church&#x27;. One can be very religious without going to the church and doing all the rites that are required by the church. In much the same way, a &#x27;tinkerer&#x27; (or &#x27;heathen&#x27;) can be scientific without being academic. I believe that wiki summarizes it quite well for me: &quot;Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe&quot;. There is no statement about giving proper credit (vanity) or not being allowed to reinvent the wheel without first making damn sure that you are indeed reinventing.<p>I want to solve real world problems and the way I want to do that is in a structural and repeatable approach. Science helps me doing this. Of course I&#x27;m not living in a vacuum, so I will look up as much as I can about the subject at hand as is reasonable within the available amount of time. Interestingly enough, I almost never end up with a research paper, but almost always with blog posts, books, tutorials et cetera. Products don&#x27;t sell themselves and neither do research papers apparently. I think there is something seriously wrong if that is not perceived as a crisis in the academic world.