I think its important to disambiguate searching for new problems and searching for new results.
For new results: while I have as little faith in academia as the next guy, I have a web of trust in other researchers who I know do good work, and the rate of their work being correct is much higher. I also give a lot of credence to their verification / word of mouth on experiments. This web of trust is a much more useful high pass filter for understanding the state of the field. I have no such filter for results outside of academia. When searching for new concrete information, information outside of academia is not worth scientists interests due to lack of trust / reputation
When it comes to searching for new hypotheses / problems, an important criterion is how much you personally believe in your direction. You never practically pursue ideas with 10% probability: you ideally pursue ideas you think have a fifty percent probability but your peers believe have a 15% probability. (This assumes you have high risk tolerance like I do, and are okay with a lot of failure. Otherwise, do incremental research). For problem generation, varied sources of information are useful, but the belief must come intrinsically.
When searching for interesting results to verify and replicate, its open season.
As a result, I think that ideas outside academia are not useful to researchers unless the researchers in question have a comparative advantage at synthesizing those ideas into good research inspiration.
As for nonideal reasons for ignoring results outside academia, I would more blame reviewers rather than vague “status concerns” and a general low appetite for risk tolerance despite working in an inherently risky profession of research.
I think its important to disambiguate searching for new problems and searching for new results.
For new results: while I have as little faith in academia as the next guy, I have a web of trust in other researchers who I know do good work, and the rate of their work being correct is much higher. I also give a lot of credence to their verification / word of mouth on experiments. This web of trust is a much more useful high pass filter for understanding the state of the field. I have no such filter for results outside of academia. When searching for new concrete information, information outside of academia is not worth scientists interests due to lack of trust / reputation
When it comes to searching for new hypotheses / problems, an important criterion is how much you personally believe in your direction. You never practically pursue ideas with 10% probability: you ideally pursue ideas you think have a fifty percent probability but your peers believe have a 15% probability. (This assumes you have high risk tolerance like I do, and are okay with a lot of failure. Otherwise, do incremental research). For problem generation, varied sources of information are useful, but the belief must come intrinsically.
When searching for interesting results to verify and replicate, its open season.
As a result, I think that ideas outside academia are not useful to researchers unless the researchers in question have a comparative advantage at synthesizing those ideas into good research inspiration.
As for nonideal reasons for ignoring results outside academia, I would more blame reviewers rather than vague “status concerns” and a general low appetite for risk tolerance despite working in an inherently risky profession of research.