Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

[Manchester]

Re: Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

Actually, lots of scientists are married to artists, or are artists themselves. My dad is a scientist, my mom is an artist and she does have one painting she did with dryer lint.

I like dryer lint as much as the next person. But where the scientist studies the lint, the artist makes stuff with it; at least anecdotally, they interact with the same world in very different ways, and so that's why I'd call them opposites in the spirit of the OP's question.

And thus, another example of "opposites attract"?

[carcar]

Re: Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

I always found it to be complementary, rather than opposites. Both use the power to imagine possibilities.

Not to derail much further, but Robert Wilson, the first head of Fermilab (and my dad's old boss) was a talented sculptor and his sense of design permeates the lab grounds, from the high energy power lines, to the high-rise to the old bubble chamber. There's a statue of his in the reflecting pond in front of the high-rise, too. I learned recently that he seriously considered giving up science and becoming a full-time sculptor, and in fact took a year off to study sculpting in Italy, prior to founding the lab. I think the concepts of chaos and symmetry are common elements of both science and art, and that's why you find a lot of marriages between the two professions.

Here's a picture:

http://www.vitopalmisano.com/index.p...8&p=4&a=0&at=0

[Southern_land]

Re: Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

Actually, lots of scientists are married to artists, or are artists themselves. My dad is a scientist, my mom is an artist and she does have one painting she did with dryer lint.

Yeah but is he a good scientist? For example, it's 2014 for God's sake, where's my flying car?

[WaitForIt]

Re: Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

I always found it to be complementary, rather than opposites. Both use the power to imagine possibilities.

Not to derail much further, but Robert Wilson, the first head of Fermilab (and my dad's old boss) was a talented sculptor and his sense of design permeates the lab grounds, from the high energy power lines, to the high-rise to the old bubble chamber. There's a statue of his in the reflecting pond in front of the high-rise, too. I learned recently that he seriously considered giving up science and becoming a full-time sculptor, and in fact took a year off to study sculpting in Italy, prior to founding the lab. I think the concepts of chaos and symmetry are common elements of both science and art, and that's why you find a lot of marriages between the two professions.

Here's a picture:

http://www.vitopalmisano.com/index.p...8&p=4&a=0&at=0

There can definitely be some good meshing; they can be perpendicular, and they can weave together tightly like the warp and weft of fabric to make something resilient. The intersections of their professions can align with the intersections of their personalities.

We sell more popcorn if they don't mesh together quite so well, though.

[Jon Jay]

Re: Jobs/careers completely opposite to Scientists?

This is possibly completely useless information, but hey-ho.

I used to work in a top UK university in the school of Physics and Astronomy. Having spent years alongside scientists, but not being one myself, I found there wasn't a massive difference between scientists and artists. Some were arty, into films, music etc; others weren't. Some were religious but most weren't. Most detested paperwork and admin, but I'm not sure that's unique to scientists. Some were Central Casting geeks, some were like models.

The only real pattern I saw was that mathematicians tended to be autistic. I'm not using that word metaphorically - I would guess that all were on the autistic spectrum - they just saw the world differently. And all the scientists I met were obsessive about their subject. I'd go to social/networking events, and you could really tell the difference between when they were listening to someone out of politeness and when they actually cared because it was relevant to their research area. They didn't do small talk. But then that may be the case with arts academics. By the time you get your doctorate you've been studying the same thing for 7 years - you're bound to get a little screwy about it.