Hi Val, sounds like an interesting book, I just question the idea that there was a time where more 'creative' types with way out ideas have been/will be more well accepted...
does the book go that far?
According to Smolin, the creative types were more tolerated until around 30-ish years ago. He wrote that there were always a few creative types banging around universities until then, but that their numbers have been progressively diminishing.
The main problem is that creative types can't publish 2 or 3 or more papers per year. So if you compare them to the master-craftsmen-types after 5 or even 10 years, the latter group will look much better. But he argued that if you leave the creative types alone, their contributions will eventually match or exceed those of the master craftsmen. A problem today is that everyone has to have grants coming in all the time, and you can't get grants if you don't publish a lot and so....
That said, he also cited Einstein's case and reminded the reader that he was working in the patent office because he couldn't get an academic job. But he also provided evidence that the climate was less hostile to the creative types back then.
Val
