From the NYTimes article on the Nobel Prize Winner
“I am not very competitive, so I always look for a new subject to study, even if it is not so popular. If you start from some sort of basic, new observation, you will have plenty to work on.”
An interesting statement from a Nobel prize winner. One has more chances getting published if researching a popular field, but he chose a new subject.
I often think about Start-up ideas, improvement or adaption of current ideas or a new field. The ideal is to invent a new field, a new concept. The challenge, the reward, the glory are bigger, but getting there is more difficult (and may fail).
And another observation:
“Unfortunately, these days, at least in Japan, young scientists want to get a stable job, so they are afraid to take risks,”
Not only in the Academy, but also at work.
We need more risk takers.