Comments on: End of freelancing as scientist (for now)

By: The Future of (Life) Scientists « Freelancing science

The Future of (Life) Scientists « Freelancing science — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:32:00 +0000

[...] is category I was aspiring to. Here you can read little details how I tried, and here when and why it failed. I still think it can be done, although not in every field and not all the time. My hope [...]

By: Morgan Langille

Morgan Langille — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:54:34 +0000

Great post! I really liked your comments on the fact that you felt like an idiot all the time due to the fact that you were not “playing it safe”. When I think back to my personal times of feeling like an idiot it was indeed when I was learning the most!

Maybe this will make me feel better the next time I happen to embarrass my self!

By: Daniel Jurczak

Daniel Jurczak — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:49:50 +0000

Sorry to hear Pawel. Good luck in the upcoming endeavor, anyway

By: Harold Jarche

Harold Jarche — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:32:49 +0000

Good luck Paweł. As a fellow freelancer, I know how difficult it can be but I’m sure that you will find success though your passion and hard work.

Thanks for the inspiration

By: Harold Jarche » Going Solo

Harold Jarche » Going Solo — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:31:01 +0000

[...] Pawe? Szcz?sny has decided to give up on his attempt to be a freelance scientist. Here are some of the hard lessons that this PhD candidate from Poland has learned: [...]

By: Pawel Szczesny

Pawel Szczesny — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:35:39 +0000

Thank you all for the comments.

Now it’s clear that I shouldn’t violate MacLeod’s principle no. 7 (“Keep a day job”) . But still I have a feeling that it doesn’t mean there’s no other way – I just haven’t figured it out yet. “Freelance scientist” meme seems to spread fairly well (Superstruct game site writes about “open source scientists” which sounds quite similar to what I’ve tried), so I’m also sure we will see such attempts again.

I hope to try few other things next year, maybe not so crazy like this project, but still kind of unusual. Let’s see what comes out of them

By: nsaunders

nsaunders — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:53:07 +0000

It was a great experiment that most people would not even dare to attempt – be proud of it on that score alone.

It’s obviously very difficult to be an independent scientist outside of “the system”, but I still have hope for the idea. If I were trying, I would probably start from inside, in a position that didn’t take a lot of my time (and just payed the bills), a school IT officer, for example and try to do consulting.

By: Pedro Beltrao

Pedro Beltrao — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:37:45 +0000

We can keep that virtual institute idea in mind for the future .. we never know. One of these days there might be enough resources from all this dispersed community to pull it off.

By: Deepak

Deepak — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:11:43 +0000

Pawel

Almost feels like some of us have been on this journey with you, albeit without having to feel the frustration. I have a feeling this is not the last we’ve heard of this experiment in some form or another

Good luck. Can’t wait to see what you end up doing next year.

By: Chris Lasher

Chris Lasher — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:59:32 +0000

Sounds like you made a wise decision, Pawel. Please don’t lose that pioneering spirit.