20 May 2011

moving - the new pyramid scheme science has to offer?

While reading Dr. Beccas post on moving plus all the comments, I realized I realized something before: why is it that moving is REQUIRED for a scientific career, and everybody moves, but hates/dreads/suffers from it. It almost feels like a pass of entry to the secret society or some sort of rite: not willing to move, well then you are not suitable to be a scientist. “We had to move and hated it, so you have to suffer as well.”

In my country there are at least 3 good universities I could work without having to move house (selling the house is not an option in this market (the expected time for it to be on the market is over 2 years…), and the bank doesn’t allow us to rent it out). But, moving is not simply moving uni, no, you have to leave the country, to another hemisphere, otherwise it is not enough.

Really, I would love to live abroad for a while, but I would also love to stop getting older (the kid-thing again, I know, and the parents aren’t getting any younger either, so I would want them to time-freeze as well, please), and tele-porting, I would love that too. Sometimes, life doesn’t accommodate in all the things you would love to do and have.

I am opting for a miracle: that I can stay in science, while not having to move. Can we make a secret society for that too, we can even create a journal with a huge impact factor ;)

Disclaimer: I know that in the end (almost) everybody loves having had to move, the experience, and the feeling of being trapped when there wouldn't be the possibility to move, and the endless possibilities, sure I am a bit jealous. It is just that when you know you do not have that option, it simply feels like an odd criterion: moving to be a better scientist. Why not be a good scientist, without spending tons of kerosene?

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