Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system (2013)
When I was first exposed to the research "environment" during my Diplom studies (undergraduate - graduate, early to mid 90ies), I immediately recognised that if you actually love research and knowledge, academia was the last thing you ever want to get into.  No surer way to kill the spark.Now that I've gone back to do my PhD, the only reason I can do something I consider meaningful is because I am not a regular PhD student.  Interestingly, that's also the feedback I get, though as "helpful" advice that while what I am doing may be both good and important, it is unlikely to lead to success in academia.  With the implication that I should stop doing it and concentrate on something more reasonable.  Fortunately, I am not particularly interested in success in modern academia, so I get to do something I consider both good and important.A related issue is that there really is no such thing as a senior researcher.  Instead, professors are turned into research managers, responsible for helping their charges' careers, who then also turn into research managers.  Actual research appears to be mostly a still not entirely avoidable side-effect.  (And this seems similar to the way the only real way to advancement in industry is to switch to management, all dual-track equivalence rhetoric aside).