cornelis

I really like the concept of tagged unions in TypeScript. I have difficulty understanding your code. Can you create a real life example?

I don't understand your point. How is 'the academic world' not a subset of 'science'? Is it the same, a superset, or something else?

I might not have been clear enough about the point I was trying to make. OP's comment on the Super Mario Bros neural network was really insightful to me: "Seen as tinkering, that work and video is good work; seen as research, it is atrocious because of the complete lack of scholarship". This made me understand his, and most likely the academic, point of view. What I tried to convey is that I believe that there is value in embedding your knowledge in the network of previous knowledge but the academic world has perhaps gone too far in focusing on this aspect and too little on making sure that the created knowledge is applied.

In regard to saying that something is seriously wrong; There is no doubt that the academic world has produced a lot of valuable knowledge during her existence. It's the current academic world that is in crisis. With the H-index as its ultimate false god. The H-index exists only since 2005. Why should I not be allowed to criticize that? If the system is still good, it will survive the criticism.

My point is that science is meant to 'sell' something. Not a product, but the knowledge that has been created. If the knowledge is never applied in the real world its missing out on a lot of potential. If 'tinkerers' are not able to digest the knowledge we do have an issue. I'd like to think that the tinkerers/hackers/programmers/makers in the end are the customers of computer science.

Thank you OP for your very insightful blog post. You have been better than any other academic at articulating exactly what happens when I (or one of my colleagues) interact with the academic world and you made me realize that the academic world has a set of values that might be good but which I should not even attempt to incorporate in my own professional life.

I have come to my personal conclusion that there is a difference between 'science' and 'the academic world' in much the same way as there is a difference between 'religion' and 'the church'. One can be very religious without going to the church and doing all the rites that are required by the church. In much the same way, a 'tinkerer' (or 'heathen') can be scientific without being academic. I believe that wiki summarizes it quite well for me: "Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe". There is no statement about giving proper credit (vanity) or not being allowed to reinvent the wheel without first making damn sure that you are indeed reinventing.

I want to solve real world problems and the way I want to do that is in a structural and repeatable approach. Science helps me doing this. Of course I'm not living in a vacuum, so I will look up as much as I can about the subject at hand as is reasonable within the available amount of time. Interestingly enough, I almost never end up with a research paper, but almost always with blog posts, books, tutorials et cetera. Products don't sell themselves and neither do research papers apparently. I think there is something seriously wrong if that is not perceived as a crisis in the academic world.