No zeal, just expressing my state of belief, and not willing to yield for reasons other than agreement (which is true in general, the censorship topic or not).
No, yielding and the lack thereof is not the indicator of zeal of which I speak. It is the sending out of your soldiers so universally that they reach even into the territory of other's preferences. That critical line between advocation of policy and the presumption that others must justify their very thoughts (what topics interests them and how their thoughts are affected by the threat of public shaming and censorship) is crossed.
The lack of boundaries is a telling sign according to my model of social dynamics.
It is the sending out of your soldiers so universally that they reach even into the territory of other's preferences. That critical line between advocation of policy and the presumption that others must justify their very thoughts (what topics interests them and how their thoughts are affected by the threat of public shaming and censorship) is crossed.
It was not my intention to discuss whether something is interesting to others. If it wasn't clear, I do state so here explicitly. You were probably misled by the first part of this comment, where I objecte...
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.