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The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

A metascience post of sorts that argues we should take human capital more seriously

Judging from a (short) lifetime of personal observations as well as the vitriol launched at Kariko for daring to not be “normal”, I suspect some explicit pro-Weird Nerd norms have to exist in an institution that seeks to properly utilize these people, for the benefit of us all. And listening to the interviews with Karikó one hardly gets the impression that she was toxic: there is a Jesus-like quality to the way she talks even about the people who had wronged her — for example about a Professor who threatened to have her deported. As a PI, interpersonal skills become more and more important: one has to forge collaborations, write and get grants, take care of the fragile mental health of confused PhD students so they can produce work and so on.

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