Monday, March 14, 2016

The elusive dream of self funding

Many people are tired of applying for research grants. A dream is not to have to. I once heard a story [perhaps apocryphal] of a chemistry faculty member at Cornell who would just ask his wealthy wife to write a check whenever he needed more funding! I do know someone who uses income from industry consulting to fund their (small) research group and does not waste time applying for grants.

This is not just a modern problem and aspiration.
According to Ben Myers, back in the eighteenth century, the (now famous) philosopher David Hume had similar dreams.
by the time of his fiftieth birthday his books were bringing in enough income that Hume could live independently. That was his only aim in life, to be able to retire to the quiet and independent life of a writer. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, he didn’t want to be indebted to powerful patrons or to generous friends. He worked variously as a tutor, a military secretary, a secretary to an embassy, and a librarian (the latter job was unpaid but gave him access to a lot of books). He lived very frugally and saved as much as he could. He tells us with joy that, after his years in the military, he had saved up “near a thousand pounds,” and that in his last years he was earning a thousand pounds a year – enough money at last for a life of philosophical ease, though no sooner had he begun to enjoy that life than he was struck down by cancer of the bowels, and died.

1 comment:

  1. And there (at the end of that post) is the problem with such a strategy. Carpe diem! Time and tide wait for no one.