That all seems about right. While burning it all down to start over is rarely the best of strategies, I don’t know what else you do here. One of my biggest disappointments was showing up (admittedly ill prepared) for a graduate program in chemistry and finding out that we as future and current scientists weren’t getting together to study and solve cutting edge problems, but rather practicing defensive research designed to check boxes and acquire funding because it was just too risky to let it ride on a wild idea. At the time the buzzwords for just about every grant applications were “lab on a chip” and the ubiquitous “potential cancer target.” You couldn’t not include these options. Not if you wanted funding.
Maybe Heather Cox Richardson is right and we will emerge out of the current disruptions stronger and able to utilize the chaos for change. I hope so. It’s nice counter narrative to Trump = bad/wrong/terrible for the future.
That all seems about right. While burning it all down to start over is rarely the best of strategies, I don’t know what else you do here. One of my biggest disappointments was showing up (admittedly ill prepared) for a graduate program in chemistry and finding out that we as future and current scientists weren’t getting together to study and solve cutting edge problems, but rather practicing defensive research designed to check boxes and acquire funding because it was just too risky to let it ride on a wild idea. At the time the buzzwords for just about every grant applications were “lab on a chip” and the ubiquitous “potential cancer target.” You couldn’t not include these options. Not if you wanted funding.
Maybe Heather Cox Richardson is right and we will emerge out of the current disruptions stronger and able to utilize the chaos for change. I hope so. It’s nice counter narrative to Trump = bad/wrong/terrible for the future.