Oh my goodness you kinda buried the lede, abolishing tenure and IQ-testing and retesting for profs!! not necessarily personally opposed though, would like to hear more about this in future pieces. Am now 40yo myself and can feel my memory slowing a touch, it's horrifying.
I wanted to convince readers of the problem before I hit them with the radical solutions 😂
The cognitive ageing stuff can feel depressing. I definitely think I’m less sharp now than I was at 20. Obviously I’m more knowledgable now, but that’s a different axis as far as I’m concerned (and still a valuable one)
I think old men are, as usual, an easy target. Of course, people of any age group doing bad science will negatively impact science quality. Your thesis here I don't totally disagree with - I just think the ideal time to argue that would have been half a decade ago. Because right now with underqualified AI-assisted students being awarded doctorates I really don't think you can argue young people are the demographic making the best science.
Yes good point and I agree. My argument here is most salient in the context of my previous writing (eg the PhDs are easy essay). Most young scientists are bad because we’ve dropped standards severely. But for the small slice of excellent young scientists (the ones that would make disruptive discoveries), the field is sloped against them.
I think the triaging process I recommend here would work for achieving meritocracy between age groups but also within age groups.
Oh my goodness you kinda buried the lede, abolishing tenure and IQ-testing and retesting for profs!! not necessarily personally opposed though, would like to hear more about this in future pieces. Am now 40yo myself and can feel my memory slowing a touch, it's horrifying.
I wanted to convince readers of the problem before I hit them with the radical solutions 😂
The cognitive ageing stuff can feel depressing. I definitely think I’m less sharp now than I was at 20. Obviously I’m more knowledgable now, but that’s a different axis as far as I’m concerned (and still a valuable one)
I think old men are, as usual, an easy target. Of course, people of any age group doing bad science will negatively impact science quality. Your thesis here I don't totally disagree with - I just think the ideal time to argue that would have been half a decade ago. Because right now with underqualified AI-assisted students being awarded doctorates I really don't think you can argue young people are the demographic making the best science.
Yes good point and I agree. My argument here is most salient in the context of my previous writing (eg the PhDs are easy essay). Most young scientists are bad because we’ve dropped standards severely. But for the small slice of excellent young scientists (the ones that would make disruptive discoveries), the field is sloped against them.
I think the triaging process I recommend here would work for achieving meritocracy between age groups but also within age groups.