[PlatoIsADisease]

Academia is basically outdated, or needs incredible reform.

Industry and youtubers are making significant scientific progress. (I'm mostly joking about youtubers, but it does happen)

I think Academia is where B/C-list performers pretend they are A-list.

[jcattle]

Who in Industry is making meaningful progress in the field of maths? How about astronomy? Particle Physics? Psychology? Sociology?

I'd wager that I could name basically any field which does not have immediately obvious and proven ways to make money with through research.

[fuzzfactor]

Two of these are not like the others.

One of the things that is so deceptive is the way so many people think that ways to make money need to be both obvious and proven.

Of course you have to be very good at math or natural science to be able to figure out how to support your own research so you can get way more accomplished than you could at a unversity.

All others need not apply.

Most universities wouldn't act on your application anyway, if you got very far without being on the academic track, that could make lots of people look bad who would prefer to keep the status-quo more restrictive.

Edit: The threat to the status-quo must have gotten bigger than I thought, defensive reactions are popping up quicker than ever.

[fuzzfactor]

This was getting obvious even before the 1970's when university attendance went wild.

>Academia is where B/C-list performers pretend they are A-list.

The ones having top credentials and little more have gotten more & more outnumbered by more capable thinkers every decade, it's been nothing but circling the wagons which ends up creating more of an insular environment for those who love eminence and an exclusive status more than anything else.

[kjkjadksj]

Industry doesn’t really care about research that doesn’t advance the portfolio or function essentially as a demonstration of something in their portfolio. Academia is where research actually happens.

[PlatoIsADisease]

OpenAI has done more for society than all academia over the same timespan.

You could probably say the same about various medical devices/medicines. The internet. Chemistry/plastics.

Sociology/psychology is historically unfalsifiable, and mostly useless, those are truly detriments.

quantum physics might be useful, but I think even there, industry will do it better.