I seek Principles.

I do not seek Accolades.

What's the difference?

Well, this brings up an interesting (to me at least! <g>) philosophical discussion about Principles Vs. Accolades, specifically as they relate to Science and Scientific Thought, in this day and age.

A Principle is any cause-effect relationship that is guaranteed to work consistently (e.g., Newton's Third Law).

An Accolade, on the other hand, to explain it, it requires the point-of-view of someone who has already attained one -- so let's use Albert Einstein as that first person point of view...

From Einstein's perspective then, things look like this: "Hey Einstein, you won the Nobel Prize, now you get these awards, honors, fame, privileges and benefits (and whatever else you get!) as a result of <papers written and/or other actions taken> to advance science, etc., etc."

An Accolade exists solely as privilege of some sort or sorts, and exists solely in the social sphere.

An Accolade might exist as fame, power, money, respect, influence, being attractive to the opposite sex, and/or series of privileges, such as being able to get an academic paper read, published, or combinations of one or more of the above, etc.

They're nice and all (I am not knocking them), but they exist on the other side -- as the EFFECT -- of having engaged in the work that someone like Einstein engaged in.

Again, I am not interested in Accolades.

To understand this, let's talk about Principles.

Principles do not just exist in physics, in science -- principles exist across the whole spectrum of any subject that can be learned, from business and salesmanship to law and public policy, from finance and economics to psychology and human relationships, from writing and language to even such areas as comedy and movie production!

In short, there is no shortage of Principles that can be learned, in every field of human endeavor.

Having/Knowing/Understanding the right principle or principles for a given situation -- is not unlike having a pool table, and needing to make a specific shot, put a specific ball in a specific pocket.

The pool table is not unlike the current state of the Universe, and the ball to be sunk, in the pocket that it is to be sunk in, is not unlike the next succeeding desired state of the Universe.

Well, if the principles applied are the correct ones (in pool table terms, this would be the correct angle and correct velocity applied to the cue ball via the cue, pre-calculating all of the bounce angles and patterns of other balls), then whoever applies the correct principle(s) should get the change to the Universe desired, guaranteed every time, no questions asked!

Such is the power of Principles -- correctly applied.

You can get anything and everything you want in the Universe (I really believe that), but you must know the correct principle or principles, and you must know exactly when and under what circumstances to apply them ("timing is everything"...)

You see, anything that an Accolade could or ever would do for a person, a person could get by a different route, if they knew the correct principles, and when to correctly apply them...

Accolades fade and disappear as enough time passes, much like fame does.

Principles, on the other hand, are eternal.

They do not change over time, at least, not if they're true principles.

Also, with the right Principles applied correctly, you could get as many Accolades as you wished -- but the reverse is not true!

Accolades themselves do not make the recipient any more knowledgeable about, nor able to apply Principles!

Phrased another way, "Wisdom avoids vanity".

Now, with respect to physics papers, there are probably people today in physics (like Ramanujan was in his day in mathematics) who are utterly brilliant -- but their work is never read by mainstream physicists!

Why?

Well, think of physics papers in this day and age as not unlike what makes clothing fashionable...

In the fashion industry, in order to create a best-selling new fashion, the rule of thumb is that you have to be slightly different, but not too different, from last year's best-selling fashions.

Applied to physics (or science in general then), you have to be slightly different, but not too diffrent, from what's currently popular in the mainstream.

In other words, writing a scientific paper (if you want it read, published, lauded, etc., etc.) is no different than a popularity contest.

Sort of like, to quote the Zoolander movie, "You duplicate, then you elaborate".

If I were going to write a paper and I wanted to make it popular and well-received, first I'd duplicate (all of the trendy ideas and theories of the day, and that would be about 95% - 98% of the paper! <g>), then I'd elaborate (add about 2% - 5% of something novel-sounding and attention-getting, regardless of whether it was logical, compatible, or even well-thought-out, or even the baseline assumptions were well-thought-out...).

But unfortunately, I have several "mental blocks" towards such an act... some of them are called: Ethics, Morals, Integrity, Honesty, Virtue, Values, Lawfulness, "Not wanting to waste other people's time by creating more B.S. for the world", etc.

You know, your basic mental illness! <g>

I claim being intellectually handicapped in this area! <g>

So, to sum it all up, people can seek Principles (and not write papers!), or they can seek Accolades (and probably have to write a few papers, and do god-knows-what-else! <g>)

Principles are a superset of Accolades, because with one, you can get the other, but not the other way around!

Accolades are a subset of Principles (if set A is a superset of B, then set B must be a subset of A).

So, that is why I care about Principles, not Accolades.

And that is why I don't really care to write papers... Who am I trying to impress, and WHY (key point!), WHY am I trying to impress them? What would I be trying to get out of that equation? Wouldn't there be another way to get those things via the proper application of the correct Principles?

As far as I know, Elon Musk doesn't write any papers, yet he has applied Principles (both in Science and Business) correctly(!)

Does he lack for any form of social privilege that might be bestowed by an Accolade?

?

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." (<- Example of Principle)

-Archimedes