"one of the most unsung scientists of all time" ; so that's why I never heard about him I guess; he did very little to promote himself, but that still doesn't mean he was not efficient and intelligent ; he did predict a whole lot of things, and even conceived some way to measure the mass of the Earth. Respect to him. I agree promotion is not everything. Pity now we live in a world full of that. The link even says he was by far the most talented and original scientist of his time. Guess with that he didn't care about losing time in promotion like Newton did for example.
Promotion, or actually communication in general, is very important today. I believe it is crucial that scientists discuss with the general audience about what they are doing and why they are doing it. After all, the general audience is the one paying for research ;)
that's true but at the time, Michell actually preferred to focus on his work ; promotion still doesn't have to take like 60% of the task ; you have to stay reasonable and know what's more important, personally, I don't care about promotion, it's all about production, then it can come as a bonus. There are also people that are just there to get other people's attention for fuck sake ; I mean more out of the scientific world ; but that's the other extreme.
"one of the most unsung scientists of all time" ; so that's why I never heard about him I guess; he did very little to promote himself, but that still doesn't mean he was not efficient and intelligent ; he did predict a whole lot of things, and even conceived some way to measure the mass of the Earth. Respect to him. I agree promotion is not everything. Pity now we live in a world full of that. The link even says he was by far the most talented and original scientist of his time. Guess with that he didn't care about losing time in promotion like Newton did for example.
Promotion, or actually communication in general, is very important today. I believe it is crucial that scientists discuss with the general audience about what they are doing and why they are doing it. After all, the general audience is the one paying for research ;)
that's true but at the time, Michell actually preferred to focus on his work ; promotion still doesn't have to take like 60% of the task ; you have to stay reasonable and know what's more important, personally, I don't care about promotion, it's all about production, then it can come as a bonus. There are also people that are just there to get other people's attention for fuck sake ; I mean more out of the scientific world ; but that's the other extreme.
Totally, this is a matter of balance :D