A friend once told me that the academic world was modeled on monasteries, which were designed to perpetuate old knowledge while resisting the new. Even after decades in the system I am amazed at how the fine mechanics of this work. There is no arguing with the logic of academic fame, which rewards every scientific success with distractions that make it harder to do more science, while imposing enormous disincentives to putting aside polishing your legacy to take on new challenges. The academic world is very well suited to support what Thomas Kuhn called normal science. That is great until it
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