[FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

[Marcus Daniels]

Glen writes:

< [⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum. >

After seeing a few distinguished academics get spun up about peer review pissing matches which do not move the world one iota does lead me to believe this is a useful dimension.   Such people benefit from having a circumscribed world to function in, and when that scaffolding is not available, they just lose it.   There's something to be for knowing when your bandwidth and knowledge is running out, and the bad things that can happen when it does.

Marcus