You also seem to overestimate the usefulness of academia in general.
Even if 99.9% of academia is useless, getting 0.1% of it to contribute usefully to FAI research (by e.g. publishing quality papers on related topics and attracting interest) would be immense.
You’re right. The point I wanted to make is that especially in the field of psychology ( and especially in Germany) most people don’t work on anything interesting at all. In order to secure an academic position you have to suck up to your superiors and work for a substantial amount of time at their projects. And even after getting tenure you have to apply for grants and only get enough money if your research is accepted by the mainstream.
You are correct about the state of German science-affairs, which is why I might be willing to move to the US if that was needed to pursue my career—although I don’t know how different the grant-grabbing structure for psychology really is in America. That country is a disgrace on so many levels nowadays that it really would be a hard call for me to move there, but it still gets the most and best science in psychology (and I think also in general) done. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I could pursue many psychology-paths there that simply wouldn’t be available to me in Germany.
Even if 99.9% of academia is useless, getting 0.1% of it to contribute usefully to FAI research (by e.g. publishing quality papers on related topics and attracting interest) would be immense.
You’re right. The point I wanted to make is that especially in the field of psychology ( and especially in Germany) most people don’t work on anything interesting at all. In order to secure an academic position you have to suck up to your superiors and work for a substantial amount of time at their projects. And even after getting tenure you have to apply for grants and only get enough money if your research is accepted by the mainstream.
You are correct about the state of German science-affairs, which is why I might be willing to move to the US if that was needed to pursue my career—although I don’t know how different the grant-grabbing structure for psychology really is in America. That country is a disgrace on so many levels nowadays that it really would be a hard call for me to move there, but it still gets the most and best science in psychology (and I think also in general) done. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I could pursue many psychology-paths there that simply wouldn’t be available to me in Germany.