On Monday, September 2, 2013 12:17:16 PM UTC-7, William wrote: > > > > > It seems like you're saying that the model "do things because your > find them personally satisfying" doesn't appeal to you, and instead > you prefer the model "do things because you can make money or get > academic credit."
Actually, I tend to try to give away certain things. For example, I fought MIT (and my defacto thesis advisor Joel Moses) to require them to permit the distribution of Macsyma source code via the Dept. of Energy. MIT wanted to sell exclusive rights to Symbolics Inc. One of the consequences of this is that Sage can include the code for (the Maxima fork) of Macsyma. Macsyma development was, of course, paid for by US gov't agencies, and a scattering of other funding sources. I would distinguish research activities and their consequent programs from (say) writing an undergraduate textbook, including lecture notes, exercises, solutions, sample exams, etc. Such activities tend to be unreimbursed by research grants, and probably do not advance careers in academia. > Maybe you should head over to the business school. > Probably not. > > I have met many, many people whose model is "do things because you > love to do them" instead of "do things to make money", and I've met > some that prefer your model. I've met many mathematicians who do the things they love to do, knowing full well that they are very fortunate to find a job that allows them to do it, even if it pays "less money". It still pays more money than delivering pizza or driving a taxi. I am aware that some end up, um, driving a taxi. Not loving it so much. So it is a balancing game. I know that there are some people who come to college to get trained in some vocation (perhaps pre-business, computer science....) so they can make big bucks after getting an MBA, MS in CS, etc. (An earlier generation had pre-med and pre-law grade grubbers; maybe they are gone now?). Anyway, these students tended to short-change their liberal education possibilities in favor of -- money --. I find this somewhat sad. I also know of students who come to college and think the road to riches starts as being a mathematics major, or getting a PhD in math --- after all, it has happened. I personally know of 2. On the other hand, I occasionally have pointed out that a math PhD student has more in common than he/she thinks, with a theology student. Faith. Poverty, Obedience. Especially the student who avoids computing, economics, applied areas ... the opportunities for gainful employment in the same area of interest is constrained. This too can be sad. > The ones who do things because they love > them appear much more satisfied, even if they have less money. > I think that the concept I was knocking here was this: You deliver your free creative-commons [or whatever] material to a company that then "monetizes" it to deliver it back to your students and others. It also sells the names of your high-achieving students to prospective employers. You get zip. If you love this idea, fine. Explain it to your spouse/children why you are so busy that you can't go to the little-league game, can't save for college, and your family cell phone plan doesn't have unlimited data :) RJF -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
