The ancient Greeks had a society where they could afford to have people who did nothing other than open ended thinking. Sometimes I use some maths that was worked out then and I am appreciative of standing on the shoulders of such ancestral giants. A true measure of a society includes whether such a society affords people who are given the time and space just to think.

I find it amazing that in today's world there are employers willing to pay for likewise. It is quite a privilege to be in such a job where you are given some type of giant Lego set and there are no set goals as to what you come up with. In such jobs you really can be 'of independent means' and not subject to the rules that govern how a lot of people work, to value every moment and not be clock-watching until 5.30 p.m.

I follow quite a few people that work in tech and they don't seem to be restricted to boring rules but able to pursue their passion. There are no tax scams for companies to hire such people or other fiddles.

The Greeks may have had slaves and afforded their thinkers their own special way, today we have companies that can afford thinkers in their own special way. It is not just at Google where moonshots happen and neither is it just the Google-me-toos that do this (Facebook). Even small companies have people that are hired just to come up with stuff.

In previous times, before the 'modern' company, patronage was different and there were ways and means. Obviously class hierarchy helped but that was not all of it. Ultimately Darwin went off sailing with the Royal Navy and most of his work built on the work others had done regarding livestock breeding - the modern horse/cow/pig was 'invented' then. He may have inherited wealth but his work was very much about what mattered to society at the time.

How much really comes out of academia? Do 99% of thesis efforts end up collecting dust to never be read? For the author to get those letters after their name and expect the world to roll out the red carpet for them? This happens, further education is a business. There are plenty in further education who think about themselves and their status anxiety rather than society on some bigger/deeper level.

It has always been a two way street, no matter what the era is you also need people who can do the 1% inspiration/imagination and do the 99% perspiration. Luckily there are people, maybe few and far between, that can excel at that. Ultimately these people really are 'independent researchers' and they will do whatever it is whether they have a patron or an inheritance.

Then there are the wannabees that will insist on getting funding before they lift up a pen. Sometimes this is an excuse, how many investigations have not happened because there is no funding yet in reality all that is needed is for someone to put time into quietly studying the facts?

A comical (well not really) instance of this was after 9/11 when the people doing the 'investigation' said they were 'setup to fail' because they did not have the funding to do a full investigation. These people being those pork-barrel fed politicians who can't wipe their own arses unless they get funding for it.

Once I met a lovely lady on a train who worked for some think tank. Fascinated I asked about what it was really like working for this highly respected group. Apart from the guy who founded it and spent all his time telling people how to live on TV there was no 'research' going on. They just fund raised and paid for their salaries in some pyramid scheme of research. It was most disappointing to find out about.

Tinkering in your shed may not be 'independent research' there needs to be some wider society connection even if research is done in near isolation and with nobody knowing about it yet. Sometimes you need a whole new generation to come along to appreciate the new thinking. Darwin had this problem as did that Galileo chap.