Sjednica Znanstvenog vijeća (28. studenog 2010. godine)
Znanstvena vijeća. Sjednice. Sjedenje. Govor. Šutnja. Rezignacija. Odustajanje. Ali dogodi se tu i tamo ponešto
zanimljivo. Tako sam zadnji put odlučio da ponesem sa sobom notes i tanki flomaster pa sam sjedeći u magarećoj
klupi, u dnu predavaonice, vidio sve institutske znanstvenike, ali samo s leđa. Svejedno, čini mi se da sam i u
skicama s takvim gledištem uspio uhvatiti nešto od "karaktera" svojih "modela". Bila je to jedna od zanimljivijih sjednica
premda na njoj nisam rekao ni riječi. Uostalom, ponekad mi se učini da nitko nema volje ni slušati ono što bi
trebalo reći i ono što ja ponekad i kažem. Tako sam ovaj put, ali samo privremeno, odustao.
O važnim stvarima u znanosti teško je uopće govoriti. Treba stvarati, originalno misliti, voditi i davati inspiraciju. A to
nije nimalo lako niti ima ikakve veze s onim što "znanstveni menadžeri" misle da u znanosti treba raditi, kao što sam već i
ranije napisao u postu >> Menadžer i znanstvenik.
Jučer sam preletio kroz
knjigu >> "The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of
String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next"
>> Leeja Smolina (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006).
Točnije, preletio sam kroz sredinu knjige gdje se opisuju detalji teorije struna, ali sam detaljno pročitao prvi i četvrti dio
knjige koji govore o znanosti općenito. Smolin vrlo lijepo piše, jasan je i izravan, a u mnogo čemu se s njim i slažem.
Našao sam zanimljiv citat vezan uz menadžment znanosti.
I once worked on a project with a retired general who had headed a college for military officers
and then become a business consultant. He talked about his frustrations in trying to work with universities.
I asked him what he perceived the problem to be. He said, "There is a simple but essential thing we teach to
every Marine officer, that no university administrator I've met seems to know: There is a big difference
between management and leadership. You can manage the procurement of supplies, but you must lead soldiers
into battle." I agree with him. In my time in universities, I've seen much more management than leadership.
Evo i još jednog odličnog dijela:
Put simply, the physics community is structured in such a way that large research programs that promote themselves
aggressively have an advantage over smaller programs that make more cautious claims. Therefore, young academic
scientists have the best chance of succeeding if they impress older scientists with technically sweet
solutions to long-standing problems posed by dominant research programs. To do the opposite - to think deeply
and independently and try to formulate one's own ideas - is a poor strategy for success. Physics thus finds
itself unable to solve its key problems. It is time to reverse course - to encourage small, risky new research
programs and discourage the entrenched approaches. We ought to be giving the advantage to the Einsteins - people
who think for themselves and ignore the established ideas of powerful senior scientists.
A s ovom opakom primjedbom (ispod) završavam ovaj post:
It is interesting to note that the quantum-mechanics revolution was made by a virtually orphaned generation of scientists.
Many members of the generation above them had been slaughtered in World War I. There simply weren't many senior scientists
around to tell them they were crazy.
Zadnji put osvježeno 28. studenog 2010. godine
