I’m smart enough to appreciate just how much smarter than me my friends are. As I always say, talent recognizes genius. Talent should also recognize its own limits. I’ve reached that stage in my life when I’ve had to accept that I won’t be able to do the things I dreamt of doing when I was a kid, but, like a drummer in a heavy metal band, I still get to hang around occasionally with people who are doing them: getting published in Nature, inventing wonderful things, making the World a better place. I’ve now reset my sights on the modest aim of getting paid enough to take beautiful pictures that I can afford to keep a roof over my head. Stay tuned to see that target revised downward in the third quarter of 2007.
This brings me neatly to Blaise. Remember his work on Gutenberg and movable type? He’s married to Adrienne, author of one of the Nature papers. He recently sold out his start-up company to Microsoft and personally collected a large chunk of the eight-figure selling price (that’s eight figures whether you count it in US dollars or sterling). If, like me, you can’t get your head around the practical personal meaning of such sums, at least this video [requires Microsoft Media Player of course] might help you get your head round his latest brilliant creation.
On the subject of making money from photography, posting has been thin here lately because I have been on a small business course. It’s going to get thinner because I therefore have lots to catch up with, including the output of a job where I shot more rolls of film in one day than I’ve ever done before. Sorry, peeps.
Films? You still use films? As in, that stuff that needs wet processing?
Isn’t that kind of, you know, primitive or something?
I’m your friend and I’m not smarter than you!!!
Or does that mean I’m not your friend?
One of us is still getting paid to do science. It’s not me.
If all else fails, you could always run for government. I can see the campaign motto right now:-
‘Euston, the Geek has landed…’
You are an example to us all, PG. I must confess to snapping with the enemy. I bought a little Pentax Espio. Well, it is very good for quick blog illustrations, family snaps, etc. But sadly, the big daddy Pentax and the humungous Fujica are lying on the shelf like over-the-hill supermodels. I must get back to proper photography.
Aaaahh But you could still be getting paid to do science, you’re just more selective than me because you’re cleverer 😉
Do you think you’d settle for my lab-rat remuneration package?
I’d love to blame my being fussy, but I wasn’t selective at all. Over the last year of my employment I let my CV be sent by the MRC to every group that I could have worked in. Given my strange collection of experience and qualifications that was a lot of labs.
None of the MRC groups looking for lab rats that received my CV were even remotely interested in employing me. It had been a long time since I was a lab rat. Why hire an expensive old git with an exotic specialism when you can hire a cheap grunt with a relevant degree?
Ouch!
Hey, it wasn’t aimed at you. I used to be cheap grunt with an irrelevant degree.
[…] Will the Vulgarian sent me a link yesterday evening to a very interesting and entertaining lecture. Speaker and CAPTCHA inventor, Luis von Ahn starts with an explanation of what a captcha is and then goes on to outline the fascinating business of what the calls “Human Computation”. Like Blaise, Luis is witty, a freakin’ genius, and certain to become absurdly rich. This is why I enjoyed noting that he doesn’t understand the meaning of “statistical significant”. […]