At the conclusion of the interview, Pierre deduces one general lesson : “You can’t be inhibited, you must free yourself of the psychological obstacle that consists in being tied to something.” Oh no, our friend Pierre is not inhibited ; look how for the past twenty years he has jumped from subject to subject, from boss to boss, from country to country, bringing into action all the differences of potential, seizing polypeptides, selling them off as soon as they begin declining, betting on Monod and then dropping him as soon as he gets bogged down; and here he is, ready to pack his bags again for the West Coast, the title of professor, and a new laboratory. What thing is he accumulating ? Nothing in particular, except perhaps the absence of inhibition, a sort of free energy prepared to invest itself anywhere. Yes, this is certainly he, the Don Juan of knowledge. One will speak of “intellectual curiosity,” a “thirst for truth,” but the absence of inhibition in fact designates something else : a capital of elements without use value, which can assume any value at all, provided the cycle closes back on itself while always expanding further. Pierre Kernowicz capitalizes the jokers of knowledge.
-- Bruno Latour, Portait of a Biologist as Wild Capitalist
(ETA: see also.)