Comments on: The Economist: Academia ranked last as source of innovative ideas and my thoughts on startups vs grant money

By: Academic Productivity » Portrait of the scientist as a bureaucrat

Academic Productivity » Portrait of the scientist as a bureaucrat — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:59:26 +0000

[...] take this as a genuine question in search of an empirical [...]

By: Wiley Presents â€œThe Trucker Taleâ€ | Educationload.com

Wiley Presents â€œThe Trucker Taleâ€ | Educationload.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:34:26 +0000

[...] The economist: Academia ranked last as source of innovative ideas and my thoughts on startups vs gra… (academicproductivity.com) [...]

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:00:40 +0000

In Spain is very easy. 3000 euros and go or less because here exists other kind or business like “comunidad de bienes”, “autonomo”….

By: Pro Information Center » Blog Archive » Links for 2009-01-12 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:11:58 +0000

[...] Academic Productivity » The economist: Academia ranked last as source of innovative ideas and … a lot of the assumptions made in this post about startup work vastly underestimate the amount of work and effort that goes into a startup. [...]

By: Uncommon Priors » Roundup of academics in the mist and things being true because Psychology says so.

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:46:41 +0000

[...] Academia, too, rots your brain, it would appear. Or, at least, it is supposedly less conducive to creativity than working in some .com. Perhaps [...]

By: Alejandro Atienza Ramos

Alejandro Atienza Ramos — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:10:56 +0000

Well actually in Spain creating an LLC does not cost 3000â‚¬, but more like 300â‚¬.

The 3000â‚¬ is the minimum initial size of the company; you may put them into stock, buy a server, pay the first wage, whatever.

By: David Teller

David Teller — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:21:18 +0000

Now, I don’t know how universal this kind of practice is, but many academic systems offer an alternative to throwing away one’s academic life and founding/joining a start-up. For instance, the French system, with which I’m the most familiar, offers several manners for a researcher of founding a start-up and getting their work in/for the start-up approved as part of their academic career, or of getting up to 5 years of freedom, renewable, without losing their tenure, to perform research-related work in a company.

By: Alex Vozny

Alex Vozny — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:07:51 +0000

Sometimes your posts are scary and depressive. It’s helpful to see another point of view but after all you should believe in yourself. Of course academia is not without its problems and it’s harder (or slower) to solve them.
I agree with Xianhang – you should be doing what you like the most and then you will be happy and more importantly you will succeed. Academia is not for everybody as well as start-ups are not for any kind of character.

By: Xianhang Zhang

Xianhang Zhang — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:32:49 +0000

Having moved from being a graduate to a startup founder, I feel like I’m uniquely qualified to comment on the type of work under each. I think a lot of the assumptions made in this post about startup work vastly underestimate the amount of work and effort that goes into a startup.

Far from being “a small efficient marvel”, startups have to spend an inordinate amount of time on stuff that’s not actually work on the idea. Everything from seeking funding to thinking about sales and marketing. At least on the graduate level, universities are pretty reasonable machines for getting out of your way and letting you focus on research.

Another major factor is that the success of your startup depends far more than on the strength of your idea. Any one of a thousand different details could ultimately cripple your startup and it’s not clear whether the failure of your startup was due to a lack of vision or execution.

Finally, you have to love the startup lifestyle if you’re to have any hope of success. Sometimes, it’s thrilling and exciting but there’s also periods of incredible doubt and struggle. Many of my friends in academia are in academia precisely because they’re not interested in all the other stuff you need to do in a startup.

I have to say, despite all the low pay and rat race and everything else that’s supposed to make academia a drudgey, academics are some of the most universally happy people I’ve ever met. There’s a lot of grumbling but underneath, I always get the sense that most of them wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.

So even though I did go over into the startup path, I still think there’s a lot to be said for going into academia if that’s what your personality is best suited for.

By: [root@EGA]# » Blog Archive » links - 20090108

[root@EGA]# » Blog Archive » links - 20090108 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:26:03 +0000

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