xisnotx
Permabanned
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Messages
- 2,144
I was thinking about maybe carving out a career as an "independent scientist". I'd buy some land, build a small scientific lab, and build a house. I'd try to advance the sciences in directions I think are necessary..and will generate a revenue stream by either taking on small scientific/technological projects for other companies, writing and reviewing text books, publishing for scientific journals, speaking at conferences and doing whatever else I can to make support myself (and family).
I might also have a "financial sector"..where I'd do investment banking or trades or something (strictly to provide monetary resources for the lab).
I don't have a Ph.D in anything scientific though..but in this day and age..I'm not sure how necessary it is that I have one. I'm guessing if I am successful the scientific community won't care...because at the end of the day good science is good science...be it from a 65 year old physicist...or a 2 year old toddler.
I imagine a community of independent scientist online could be started (there probably already exists one..), and we could help each other with whatever we needed done...that way I don't have to have all the expensive equipment...I could buy something that they could use..and they could buy something I could use etc etc
I could go to school and get a Ph.D in something scientific as a sort of back up...but what I would like to concentrate on isn't really a standard academic field and I'm having a lot of trouble finding programs that would give me the independence to do what I would actually like to do...without stipulations that I find are unnecessary (and tedious, I'm lazy..). Plus..I'd have to take a whole bunch of classes that are only tangentially related to what I want to do...because "that's how it works"...
Assuming I could get enough capital to start this up (I have no idea how much would be needed...land, house, lab, extraneous costs)..is a career as an "independent scientist" possible?
Because, quite honestly, it seems to me to be one of the few things I wouldn't mind doing everyday...
I might also have a "financial sector"..where I'd do investment banking or trades or something (strictly to provide monetary resources for the lab).
I don't have a Ph.D in anything scientific though..but in this day and age..I'm not sure how necessary it is that I have one. I'm guessing if I am successful the scientific community won't care...because at the end of the day good science is good science...be it from a 65 year old physicist...or a 2 year old toddler.
I imagine a community of independent scientist online could be started (there probably already exists one..), and we could help each other with whatever we needed done...that way I don't have to have all the expensive equipment...I could buy something that they could use..and they could buy something I could use etc etc
I could go to school and get a Ph.D in something scientific as a sort of back up...but what I would like to concentrate on isn't really a standard academic field and I'm having a lot of trouble finding programs that would give me the independence to do what I would actually like to do...without stipulations that I find are unnecessary (and tedious, I'm lazy..). Plus..I'd have to take a whole bunch of classes that are only tangentially related to what I want to do...because "that's how it works"...
Assuming I could get enough capital to start this up (I have no idea how much would be needed...land, house, lab, extraneous costs)..is a career as an "independent scientist" possible?
Because, quite honestly, it seems to me to be one of the few things I wouldn't mind doing everyday...