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Comment by humanistbot | Hacker News Reader

I know the man just died, but this is such a limited and damaging understanding of what science is and who can be a scientist. You don't need any of those traits to be a successful scientist. Science is a method. This is just feeding into the "jocks vs nerds" mentality.

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...and the quote is likely because Wilson is of the era where those tropes were hardcoded into social status/cliques. Its an accurate perception of an era somewhat gone.

And know that method by the fruits it produces, the replication crisis, and more broadly an overwhelming number of papers that are not wrong but totally pointless. I'm not saying the quote is totally right but there is something about that temperament that produces researchers who are less inclined to publish things that they know are wrong/meaningless, just to get ahead in the publish or perish paradigm.

Science has its methods, but I think that saying "science is a method" is too reductive.

Much like visual artists need to master the brush or the pencil, but this technical mastery isn't enough to produce lasting Art, the method itself does not produce good Science.

Maybe the long list given by Wilson is too long (there are definitely extroverted scientists out there), but at the very least, a good scientist needs to be curious.

Hypothesis generation is key to good science, but is a creative process rather than a procedural one

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