Back in business
Sorry I've been away so long, but last weekend steve got really drunk at Misty's party, and the next morning I beheld a vision of the livejournal "pencil" logo in the pattern of the puke on his tuxedo jacket, and it reminded me that I really needed to get out and write.
So, here's why my profession rules:
The Laboratory director for Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Praveen Chaudhari, is stepping down. Why, you ask? Was it a sex scandal? A shift in the political climate? Is he a scapegoat for atonement of some great failure? No. Praveen is stepping down to go back into the lab and do more goddamn science.
That's right, according to him, "the laboratory is now in very good shape," and so he doesen't need to sit at the helm and direct things, so he's taking the opportunity to climb back down the ladder of command and get his fingers dirty again.
I understand this drive very well - the desire to do more research, and the abstract terror at the thought of being pulled from such a position into a bureaucratic position. I am inclined to believe that most people desire "more power" in an organization based on two inextricable principles:
1. People above them are stupid and demanding, and they'd like to be "on top" instead, and
2. The pay is better.
Now, in science, you understand, the pay is already reasonable, and "I can't hear it when people say stupid things" isn't just a practicable position, but the norm among my cohorts. You don't get fired for not doing dumb things,, and possibly even more heartening, the people who would have asked you to do dumb things don't work there anyway.
Anyway, off to work.
So, here's why my profession rules:
The Laboratory director for Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Praveen Chaudhari, is stepping down. Why, you ask? Was it a sex scandal? A shift in the political climate? Is he a scapegoat for atonement of some great failure? No. Praveen is stepping down to go back into the lab and do more goddamn science.
That's right, according to him, "the laboratory is now in very good shape," and so he doesen't need to sit at the helm and direct things, so he's taking the opportunity to climb back down the ladder of command and get his fingers dirty again.
I understand this drive very well - the desire to do more research, and the abstract terror at the thought of being pulled from such a position into a bureaucratic position. I am inclined to believe that most people desire "more power" in an organization based on two inextricable principles:
1. People above them are stupid and demanding, and they'd like to be "on top" instead, and
2. The pay is better.
Now, in science, you understand, the pay is already reasonable, and "I can't hear it when people say stupid things" isn't just a practicable position, but the norm among my cohorts. You don't get fired for not doing dumb things,, and possibly even more heartening, the people who would have asked you to do dumb things don't work there anyway.
Anyway, off to work.