« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"  (Read 1115 times)

Ben

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 46,253
  • I'm an Extremist!
Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« on: December 07, 2013, 09:46:55 PM »
Interesting perspective from Peter Higgs, who discovered the Higgs Boson. He believes no university today would hire him because he wouldn't have shown enough collaboration, and wouldn't have pumped out enough papers.  I can totally empathize with his POV. Not comparing myself to him smarts-wise by any means, but I work the same way he appears to - in solitude with the need for freakin' peace and quiet in order to do my best work.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system
Report to moderator   Logged
"I'm a foolish old man that has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop."

SADShooter

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,242
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2013, 10:06:31 PM »
Don't fit the socio-metric models, don't expect any support in the brave new world.

Gattaca! Gattaca! Gattaca!
Report to moderator   Logged
"Ah, is there any wine so sweet and intoxicating as the tears of a hippie?"-Tamara, View From the Porch

vaskidmark

  • National Anthem Snob
  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12,799
  • WTF?
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2013, 11:08:16 PM »
Not perzakly true.  Seems some other guy with no qualifications or experience managed to get hisself hired.

'Course. Higgs does not appear to have screwed up anything.  Could be an important difference.

stay safe.
Report to moderator   Logged
If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

Hey you kids!! Get off my lawn!!!

They keep making this eternal vigilance thing harder and harder.  Protecting the 2nd amendment is like playing PACMAN - there's no pause button so you can go to the bathroom.

RoadKingLarry

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 21,841
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2013, 12:01:10 AM »
Sure, but Higgs actually did something before he got his Nobel Prize.
Report to moderator   Logged
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

230RN

  • saw it coming.
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 18,938
  • ...shall not be allowed.
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2013, 09:23:19 AM »
Same old "publish or perish" paradigm, nothing new here, or even back in the 50s and 60s.  Get an assistant prof drunk back then and the same plaints and pleas would come out.

I'm reminded of the remark that "Deans can't read... but they can count."

I am told the same thing happens in industry, where apparently, they're looking for your patent count.

From the cited article:
"He has never been tempted to buy a television, but was persuaded to watch The Big Bang Theory last year, and said he wasn't impressed."

Well, that disqualifies him automatically, as far as I'm concerned.

Terry
« Last Edit: December 08, 2013, 09:28:41 AM by 230RN »
Report to moderator   Logged
WHATEVER YOUR DEFINITION OF "INFRINGE " IS, YOU SHOULDN'T BE DOING IT.

Ben

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 46,253
  • I'm an Extremist!
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2013, 09:29:49 AM »
Quote from: 230RN on December 08, 2013, 09:23:19 AM
was persuaded to watch The Big Bang Theory last year, and said he wasn't impressed."

Well, that disqualifies him automatically, as far as I'm concerned.

Terry

Well, being smart doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with having good taste. :)
Report to moderator   Logged
"I'm a foolish old man that has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop."

Hawkmoon

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 27,341
Re: Peter Higgs: "No One Would Hire Me Today"
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2013, 09:42:29 AM »
Quote from: 230RN on December 08, 2013, 09:23:19 AM
Same old "publish or perish" paradigm, nothing new here, or even back in the 50s and 60s.  Get an assistant prof drunk back then and the same plaints and pleas would come out.

Many, many years ago I worked for an A/E (that's Architecture & Engineering, not Arts & Entertainment) firm that insisted ALL project managers must submit articles to trade publications.

Then they complained when projects were running late ...
Report to moderator   Logged
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
100% Politically Incorrect by Design
Pages: [1]
« previous next »