Eric Weinstein: ROI Obsession and Consensus Are Killing American Science
Ask about All-In Podcast
Episode Description
Thanks to our partners for making this possible!
As wealth grows, complexity compounds. Between investments, tax strategy and estate planning, coordinating it all can feel like a full-time job. Creative Planning can help with the heavy lifting. https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N2598215.3565131ALLIN/B36182939.452362736;dc_trk_aid=646454825;dc_trk_cid=260464105;dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;ltd=;dc_tdv=1
With over nine million acres protected across all fifty states, The Conservation Fund secures the irreplaceable lands we love. Learn more at http://conservationfund.org
Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg
Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allin
Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod
Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect
Brief Summary
Scientists need recognition and freedom to innovate without administrative constraints.
Key points
- The Value of Scientists. Scientists should be treated as rock stars to retain their talent.
- Understanding ROI. A challenge to the understanding of ROI in scientific contexts.
- Radical Ideas and Institutions. A critique of how institutions stifle radical ideas in science.
Episode quotes
Transcript
Treat scientists like the rock stars that they should be, will be. Otherwise, you're going to lose them. >> When you have administrator types come in and say, "What we need is KPIs. I'm data-driven. I want to know what the translation is." Do you even know what ROI is? Or is it just what you can measure? >> Yeah. >> And so my claim is a lot of what you want is you want these people on retainer. So whenever you have a real problem, you call up the most terrifying intellects you can imagine and we can get to work and we can solve your problems. If you tell me you should work on this because this thing is what
drives the ROI, my feeling is do you just not understand science? Do you imagine that your technology mindset is the same thing as my scientific mindset? You want to get paid, spend a lot of time in Silicon Valley. I'm not nearly as interested in having a new McLaren as whether my name is going to be discussed 10,000 years from now if humans are still around. We're in some sort of crazy world in which people who have radical ideas can't do the radical ideas inside of the institutions. When people say something different, do you force them back into this consensus? Well, that's what nations do and we have
become a nation when it comes to science.
