Bruce G. Charlton, Editor of Medical Hypotheses and Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Buckingham (UK) wrote an article last year titled Why are modern scientists so dull? How science selects for perseverance and sociability at the expense of intelligence and creativity.
He then followed it up this year with another in the same vein Why it is ‘better’ to be reliable but dumb than smart but slapdash: Are intelligence (IQ) and Conscientiousness best regarded as gifts or virtues
It's funny, though, because while I do see creativity hammered out of people by schools, from elementary all the way up to graduate school, I have always felt that academia protects socially-inept misanthropes - they are given far too much leeway to be stupid annoying people because pehaps that somehow is the mark of real genius...
[Note: originally published Oct 6, 2009@ http://bike-nyc.blogspot.com/2009/10/dumb-and-dumber-science.html]
All too true. But you need to be a scientist to get those resources. I am trying to be a maven in my field but it's difficult.
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