The problem is that we are in a society of "haves" and "have nots" and
the innovators tent to fall into the "have not" category. ("haves" have
no incentive to be innovative, creative or work hard, since they already
have) Thus, anyone with truly innovative ideas and passion/skill for
pursuing them is probably in my same boat as an unemployed entrepreneur
at best and thus doesn't have money to pay themselves, much less anyone
else.
Basic scientific research needs a private sector non-university
alternative! Universities and the tenured professor elite have failed
society - on all fronts: education, careers and research. We need
alternative competition to the ivory tower for those of us innovators
who have lost faith in the ivory tower yet still wish to move our
innovations forward without them!
On 9/12/2012 11:34 AM, Wayne Tyson wrote:
Dear Ecolog and friends:
I have been retired since 2000, when I "sold" my 21-year consulting business to a newly-minted Ph.D. whom I met through
Ecolog. This turned out to be a mistake, and I do not hold myself blameless. The bottom line is that I did not profit from this
"sale," and my retirement fund was not big enough to fund a modest lifestyle, especially after the "Crash of
2008." Since then, my wife and I have been "eating our seed corn," causing our "nest egg" to shrink even
further. I now find it necessary to find some way to make a little extra income.
I do not wish to "sell" my old consulting business; the five years that it was operated by the new
"owner" did not greatly enhance its reputation. I do not want to open another consulting business;
however, I would be interested in being a part-time employee of a small existing company or
"startup" that is interested in ecosystem restoration and related fields.
My knowledge is both limited and unlimited-well, in a way. I have always been interested in working up and out from principles
rather than a "cookbook" approach to practice--understanding rather than "knowledge application." Inevitably,
however, my work has been referred to as a "method," and that is partly, perhaps largely, my own fault. In my
ignorance, I once wrote an article in which I referred to a particular technique used on one project as a "method." The
response to this article (many requests for "specifications") and being professionally frustrated in my cushy 11-year
government job caused me to hang out my shingle as a consultant that year.
Despite my considerable ignorance with respect to running a business, I managed
to make a decent living out of doing what I love for 21 years. I have drafted a
sampling of projects that have been continuously successful without irrigation,
fertilization, or maintenance that are as old as forty years and as recent as
ten or more years for which photographs are still available, along with
coordinates and links to Google Maps. However, much of my work has been of a
purely consulting nature (government agencies, project review, NGO's and the
like). I have written several papers, mostly of a general nature. I am not
primarily a researcher, but a consumer of research. I have grown a lot, and I
continue growing.
If anyone is interested in working out some mutually-convenient arrangement by
which I might earn a modest income in exchange for my modest, part-time
involvement, I would like to hear your ideas and aspirations.
I am leaving tomorrow for my usual extended fall tour of the western United
States, but plan to return earlier than normal sometime before October 11 for a
short period when I will read my email before I leave again . I do not take any
form of electronic device other than a low-tech cell phone on these trips, so
this gives any interested parties a month to reply by email (unless they do so
before we leave tomorrow--or maybe not until Saturday), but to those who do
request more information by then, I will provide my cell phone number
(realizing that I am most often out of cell-phone range on these trips).
Respectfully submitted,
Wayne Tyson
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/
http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
